BlWrtl**'.llJi  WMiHil » li^<A»JU 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


A  BOOK  OF  INSCRIPTIONS 


A  Book  of  Inscriptions 


Those  wished-for  words — thai  name  the 
house,  inscribe  its  hearth  and  garth, 
or  hear  its  owner'' s  friendly  messages. 


By  ESTHER  MATSON 


NEW  YORK         MeBRIDE,  NASI  i  CO.         1914 


Co^TR'l&tfT,  I8U,  Br 
McBftlDE.  NAST  &  CO. 


Published    April,    1914 


GIFT 


TO 


MARTHA  ROWLAND 


230 


■'•■';>%j»a 


ET  us  dream  of  evanes- 
cence, and  linger  in  the 
beautiful  foolishness  of 
things. 

From  THE  BOOK  OF 
TEA,   Okakura-Kakuzo. 


FOREWORD 

HO  has  not  at  some  time  wished  for 
a  word,  a  phrase,  a  verse  or  two,  or 
perhaps  merely  for  a  name,  to  fit 
a  particular  place  or  occasion?  It 
may  be  the  desire  was  to  inscribe 
some  sentiment  over  a  chimneypiece ; 
it  may  be  it  was  for  a  word  or  so  to 
accompany  some  gift,  or  else  to  send  with  some  mis- 
sive of  goodspeed  to  the  friend  who  went  a-traveling. 
Again,  it  may  have  been  only  the  wish  to  give  that 
final  cachet  of  personality  and  sense  of  own-ness 
to  one's  house  and  garden  that  goes  with  nomencla- 
ture. 

To  whoever  has  any  such  wishes,  the  present  lit- 
tle volume  offers  its  service, —  not  presuming  surely 
at  fulfilment  of  them,  or  at  any  sort  of  exhaustive- 
ness, —  but  hoping  to  prove  itself  hintful  and  sug- 
gestive. 

True,  the  compiling  of  wise  saws  and  modern  in- 
stances never  comes  to  any  end,  and  what  is  more 
the  use  of  inscriptions,  indoors  and  out  of  doors,  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  were  the  easiest  of  enthusi- 
asms to  ride  to  death.  None  the  less  something 
there  is  in  human  nature  that  makes  it  always  go 
jump,  like  the  little  maid  in  the  play,  at  the  apt 
word  and  the  telhng  phrase.     And  in  further  excuse 


FOREWORD 


for  ourselves,  the  associations  that  go  with  certain 
inscriptions  and  certain  names  are  quite  as  real, 
though  tangible,  as  the  fragrances  of  flowers. 
Whence,  a  hearth  with  a  text  wrought  over  it  may 
not  only  enhance  the  sense  of  possession  but  may 
also  induce  a  feeling  of  kinship  between  the  owner 
and  some  loved  or  celebrated  person.  Whence,  a 
word  of  dedication  with  a  book  may  increase  its  in- 
terest tenfold  or  more.  Or  again,  a  verse  accom- 
panying flowers  or  fruit  may  outlast  the  fragile  gift 
and  linger  as  a  pleasant  recollection  long  after. 

In  the  matter  of  choosing  a  place  name  most  of  us 
make  much  ado,  but  oddly  enough  even  after  we 
have  made  our  own  decisions  we  continue  to  take 
interest  in  other  names  of  other  places,  especially 
perhaps  in  those  belonging  to  the  homes  of  olden 
time. 

Within  doors  and  out,  in  hearth  and  garth,  the 
idea  of  using  mottoes  as  decorative  features  opens 
up  all  sorts  of  entertaining  possibilities.  Only  the 
note  of  warning  must  be  sounded.  For  only  too 
mighty  is  the  lure  of  them  and  only  too  difficult  to 
resist  a  temptation  to  inscribe  them  here,  there, 
and  everywhere.  Nothing  could  be  drearier  to  con- 
template than  the  mere  thought  of  a  house  and 
grounds  that  should  bristle  with  texts  howsoever  apt. 
But  then,  discretion  is  a  part  of  valor  to  be  taken 
for  granted  and  it  may  well  be  left  to  each  gentle 
reader  to  prove  himself  both  weatherwise  and  pass- 
ing wary  in  his  use  of  any  mottoes,  whether  merrie, 
wise  or  otherwise. 


FOREWORD  xi 

We  trust  the  grouping  of  place  names  first,  of 
house  and  garden  texts  next,  and  thirdly  of  gift  ac- 
companiments may  make  for  ease  in  reference,  so 
that  he  who  runs  may  read  and  perchance  choose 
therefrom  or  better  still  be  urged  to  further  thought 
hereupon. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

For  selections  from  work  of  modern  time  the  editor  has 
tried  as  far  as  possible  to  identify  each  excerpt  with  the  pub- 
lisher by  whom  it  was  brought  out.  Acknowledgments  are  due 
to  the  firms  named  as  follows: 

To  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Company  for  extracts  from  Lowell, 
Emerson,  Clinton  ScoUard,  Edward  Rowland  Sill  and  Thomas 
Bailey  Aldrich. 

To  the  Century  Company  for  extracts  from  Richard  Watson 
Gilder  and  James  Whitcomb  Riley. 

To  Charles  Scribner's  &  Sons  for  extracts  from  Robert  Louis 
Stevenson  and  Henry  Van  Dyke  and  Eugene  Field. 

To  Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  Triibner  &  Company,  Ltd.,  Lon- 
don, for  extracts  from  Austin  Dobson. 

To  Eliot  Stock,  London,  for  extracts  from  S.  F.  A.  Caulfield. 

Indulgence  is  craved  for  any  instances  of  oversight  and 
special  indebtedness  is  tendered  to  certain  individual  writers, 
old  and  new, —  among  others  to  S.  F.  A.  Caulfield  for  the  in- 
spiring "  House  Mottoes  and  Inscriptions,"  to  Elaine  Goodale 
Eastman,  to  Anna  Hempstead  Branch,  and  to  Annie  H.  Chad- 
wick  for  a  verse  from  the  poems  of  John  White  Chadwick. 


CONTENTS 


Much-Ado  About  the  Place  Name 

FAGB 

According  to  Site 5 

Descriptive  Names 10 

For  Beast,  Bird,  or  Fish 12 

Because  of  Trees 14 

For  Love  of  Woods  and  Wilds    ....>..  17 

For  Favorite  Flowers .     .  20 

For  Plants 22 

Indian  Names i.      .      .  23 

With  Foreign  Flavor >      .      .  25 

With  Homely  Flavor >      .      .  28 

Famous  Place  Names  in  Fiction     ....;...  29 
Place  Names  Famed  for  Famous  Folk    .     .     >     .     .31 

Punning  and  Playful  Names !.      .      .  33 

Mottoes  fob  Heabth  and  Gabth 

Overdoor  Inscriptions 39 

Chimneypiece  Mottoes 47 

Of  Home  as  Home 51 

For  the  Dining-room >.      .      .  68 

For  the  Bedroom .  77 

For  the  Music-rojom 82 

For  a  Tea-table 83 

For  Little  Homely  Things 85 

For  Candles         90 

For  a  Stairway 91 

For  Time-pieces :.      .      .  92 

For  Cupboards 94 


CONTENTS 

PASB 

For  the  Garden  Gateway 95 

For  Garden  Seat  or  Gazebo 97 

For  Fountain  or  Bird-pool ..,     .      .  102 

For  a  Weathorvane 104 

For  the  Sundial 106 

Accompaniments  foe  Gifts 

At  Christmas-Tide 118 

For  the  New  Year 122 

For   Spring  Time 125 

For  Birth  Days 128 

At  Commencement  Time 131 

Saint  Valentine's  Day 136 

For  Weddings  and  Wedding  Anniversaries     .      .      .      .139 

For  Friends  Who  Are  111 142 

For  Those  ^Yho  Go  A-traveling 146 

With  Gifts  Various  and  Sundry 150 

With  Books          158 

With  Flowers 163 

Suggestions  for  Thanks i    i.j     .      •  167 

Ende-word 


MUCH-ADO  ABOUT  THE  PLACE 
NAME 


'  Who  hath  not  owned,  with  rapture-smitten  frame, 
The  power  of  grace,  the  magic  of  a   name?" 


INTRODUCTION 

N  one  of  Stevenson's  most  happy  es- 
says he  talks  of  the  romance  of 
nomenclature.  Balzac  had  so  great 
a  regard  for  names  that  he  would 
oftentimes  wander  for  days  in  and 
out  of  the  streets  of  Paris  seeking 
the  precise  title  for  some  one  of  his 
novels  or  for  some  particular  character  in  them. 
Thackeray's  most  famous  book  cost  him  a  deal  of 
worry  until  suddenly  the  suitable  name  came  to  him 
in  the  middle  of  the  night  and  he  jumped  out  of  bed 
to  run  jubilant  through  the  house  crying,  "  Eureka, 
Eureka.     I  have  it.  .  .  .  Vanity  Fair." 

One  of  the  ironies  of  fate  is  the  inconsistency 
which  too  often  exists  between  the  average  place 
name  and  the  impression  it  makes  upon  us.  How- 
ever, the  numberless  hemmed-in  spots  designated 
"  Fair  View,"  the  treeless  and  bushless  "  Maple 
Groves,"  the  dried-up  "  Bonnie-burns  "  and  their  eilk 
are,  we  trust,  the  exceptions  which  must  in  the  long 
run  prove  the  rule  of  fitness.  Meantime  much  pleas- 
ure may  be  had  in  ferreting  out  the  stories  which 
are  often  connected  with  names  which  we  are  prone 
to  pass  by  as  insignificant  or  commonplace.  How 
many  of  us,  for  instance,  when  we  speak  of  The 
Hague  bethink  us  of  the  original  meaning  of  the 


4  THEPLACENAME 

word  — "  Count's  Hedge  "  with  the  veritable  vista 
that  meaning  opens  up  into  the  mediaeval  history  of 
Holland?  Here  Indeed  we  have  one  of  the  pleasant 
ironies  of  fate  —  that  on  the  very  site  of  a  strong- 
hold of  feudalism  we  should  see  the  erection  of  a 
Peace  Palace  aiming  to  do  away  with  the  obsolete 
fences  of  militarism  throughout  the  world. 

If  it  be  an  art  to  use  the  right  word  in  the  right 
place,  and  if  it  be  an  art  to  suit  one's  environment 
to  one's  taste,  then  surely  is  it  no  less  an  art  to  dis- 
cover and  apply  the  right  name  to  one's  own  house 
and  garden. 


ACCORDING  TO  SITE 


Broolibank  —  the  vine-clad  and  latticed  cottage 
at  Shotter  Mill,  Surrey,  where  George  Eliot  wrote 
most  of  "  Middlemarch,"  that  one  of  her  novels 
which  contains  perhaps  the  rarest  of  her  characters, 
Dorothea  Brooke. 


Brook  Farm 
Brae  Burn 
Bendobrook 
Brookside 
Sunnybrook 
Willow  Brook 
Glenburnie 
Brightwaters 
River  House 
Sweetwater  Lodge 


The  Harbor 

Camp   Paradise   Point 

By  the  Sea 

Pine  Beach 

Breezy  Bank 

Four  Winds  Farm 

Bay  Crest 

Wave  Crest 

Edgewood 

Edgewater 


Invernara  —  Mr.  John  Achelis's  place  at  Sea- 
bright,  N.  J. 

Yellowsands  —  suggested  by  a  line  in  Shake- 
speare. 

The  Breakers  —  Mrs.  Cornelius  Vanderbilt's  house 
at  Newport. 

Intermont  —  the  name  of  Mrs.  Grover  Cleveland's 
place  at  Tamworth,  New  Hampshire. 


THE    PLACE    NAME 


The  Meadows  Sunny  Knoll 

Fair  Mead  Seven  Knolls 

Faerie  Lea  Uplands 

Whitefields  Overlook 

The  Downs  Fair  View 

The  Hillside  Lake  View 

The  Ridge  Netherdale 

Sagamore  Hill  —  Colonel  Roosevelt's  place  at 
Oyster  Bay,  L.  I. 

Sandy  Knowe  —  the  Highland  farmstead  belong- 
ing to  his  grandfather  where  Walter  Scott  as  a  lit- 
tle boy  was  sent  to  live  an  out-of-door  life.  He 
later  celebrated  the  wild  scenery  around  it  in  "  Mar- 
mion." 

WoodknoU  Felsmere 

Glenwood  Gray  Rocks 

Stonywolde  Torbank 

Stonycroft  Underledge 

Stone  Haven  Windy  Ledge 

Stoneleigh  Echo  Grove 

Cragside  The  Terrace 

Bald  Summit  Edgehill 

Dreamwold  —  country  estate  of  Thomas  W.  Law- 
son. 

Deepdale  —  Estate  of  William  E.  Vanderbilt  at 
Oakdale,  Long  Island. 

Ferncliff  —  country  place  of  Vincent  Astor. 

Moor  Park  —  country  home  with  Dutch  gardens, 
to  which  Sir  William  Temple  retired,  and  which  he 


ACCORDING    TO    SITE 


called  "  the  sweetest  place,  I  think,  that  I  have  ever 
seen  in  my  life,  either  before  or  since,  at  home  or 
abroad." 


The  Hermitage 
Beaurepairre 
The  Citadel 
Kosj  Korner 
Gray  Gables 
Hopeland 


Moorseats 
Castleaire 
The  Grange 
The  Hillside 
Beaumont 
Barnstead 


Lammermoors  —  "  Higher  Moors,"  celebrated  in 
Scott's  "  Bride  of  Lammermoor." 

Hauteville  House  —  home  in  Guernsey  where  Vic- 
tor Hugo  wrote  "  Les  Miserables." 

Strawberry  Hill  —  cottage  near  Twickenham 
which  Horace  Walpole  turned  into  a  miniature 
Gothic  castle,  and  where  he  gathered  together  a 
famous  library  and  collection  of  paintings ;  where 
he  also  set  up  a  private  printing  press. 


Hemlock  Hill 
Longford 
C ran ford 
Riverby 
Ingledean 
Ingleneuk 

Windsor  (Winding 
shore) 


Ferncroft 

Locksley  Hall 

Talgarth  Hall 

Nutholme 

The  Old  Mill  House 

Overlea 

Meadowlands 


Rydal  Mount  —  home  of  William  Wordsworth  in 
the  Lake  Region. 


8  THE    PLACE    NAME 

EdgehUl  —  old  Virginia  home  designed  by  Jeffer- 
son for  his  daughter. 

The  Abbey  of  Battle  —  old  mansion  near  site  of 
the  battle  of  Senlac.  William  of  Normandy  built  a 
monastery  here  in  fulfilment  of  a  vow  in  memory  of 
those  who  fought  and  fell  in  his  cause. 

Craigie  Lea  Cairn  Hill 

Faerie  Lea  Bonnie  View 

Overlee  Hill  View 

Sunnycroft  Bergwiesen   (Dutch 
Onadune  equivalent) 

Bonnieluft  Hillstead 

Interlan^  —  home  of  the  artist,  F.  W.  Kost,  at 
Brook  Haven,  Long  Island. 

Begbrohe  —  many-gabled  old  house  near  Ems. 

Clough  —  house  of  John  H.  Neave  at  Maccles- 
field, England. 

Upton  Knoll  —  home  built  by  John  Bellows  near 
Gloucester. 

Farringford  —  Surrey  home  of  Alfred  Tennyson, 
the  rare  quiet  of  which  so  impressed  Thackeray's 
daughter  that  she  wrote  "  the  house  itself  seemed 
like  a  charmed  palace,  with  green  walls  without  and 
speaking  walls  within." 

ShilHngford  Carisbrook 

Ford  Place  Fernbrook 

Welford  Falling  Waters 

Bideford  Laughing  Waters 

Burnside  Harbor  Hill 


ACCORDING    TO    SITE  9 

Bankside  Hinchinbrook   House 
Alderbrook  home    of    the    Crom- 

Overbrook  wells 

Westbrook  Fountains  Abbey 

Colebrook  Fonthill 

Hazelford  —  a  quaint  seventeenth-century  English 
home. 


DESCRIPTIVE  NAMES 

The  Red  House  —  built  by  William  Morris,  the 
man  "to  whom  work  was  a  sheer  joy."  The  house 
has  been  described  as  "  the  house  of  the  apple  or- 
chard, with  emblazoned  scroll,  '  If  I  can.'  '* 

The  Dormers  The  Round  Tower 

Gray  Gables  The  Moated  Grange 

The  Gray  House  Casa  Alba 

The  Long  House  Porch  House 

Slabsides  —  camp  of  John  Burroughs  back  of  the 
Hudson. 

Shingle  Shanty  —  studio  of  the  artist  Malcolm 
Fraser  at  Brook  Haven,  Long  Island. 

The  Vineyards  —  estate  at  Great  Beddoe,  Eng- 
land. 

Sans  Souci — ("Free  from  Care")  Palace  at 
Potsdam,  Prussia,  built  by  Frederick  the  Great. 

Sorgh  Vliet  —  (Dutch  equivalent  for  above)  home 
of  ancient  Dutch  writer,  Jacob  Cats. 

Highcliffe  Castle  Sky  Farm 

Beaulieu  Cloud  Cabin 

Greystone  Northcote 

Luckley  Hillair 

Chesterwood  —  country   place   of  Daniel   Chester 

French. 

10 


DESCRIPTIVE    NAMES  11 

Charlecote  House  —  Warwickshire,  associated 
with  Shakespeare. 

Hatfield  House  (in  Doomsday  Book,  Hetfelle)  — 
Heath  Field,  seat  of  Marquis  of  Salisbury. 


FOR  BEAST,  BIRD,  OR  FISH 

Swallomfields  —  country  place  celebrated  in  the 
seventeenth  century  for  its  gardens  described  by  John 
Evelyn  as  "  elegant  as  tis  possible  to  make.  .  .  . 
So  beset  with  all  manner  of  sweete  shrubbs  that  it 
perfumes  the  aire.  My  Lady  being  extraordinarily 
skilled  in  the  flowery  part,  and  my  Lord  in  diligence 
of  planting." 

Oriole  Ramscliffe 

Wing  and  Wing  Deerslea 

Ravenshill  Deer's  Run 

Crow's   Nest  Foxhurst 

Hawkwood  Fox  Meadow 

Harebell  Elkton  Hall 

Swallow's  Nest  Bass  Cote 

Wingfield  Eagle's  Nest 

Squirrel  Inn  —  rustic  club  house  at  Twilight  Park 
in  the  Catskills. 

Troutheck  Pari:  —  English  estate  dating  back  to 
the  time  of  Henry  IV. 

Dunrohin  Castle  —  Scotland,  property  of  the 
Duchess  of  Sutherland. 

Owl's  Nest  Harlakenden 

Kronest  Bass  Rock  Farm 

Ravensknowle  The  Dolphins 

13 


BEAST,    BIRD,    OR   FISH         13 

Frogmore  Lodge  Cricket  Lawn 

Eagle's  Beak  Badger 

Harefield  Coney-garth 

Falconer  Court  Deerbrook 

Heronhouse  Barnacle 

HawVs  Tower  —  Habichtsburg,  believed  by  Maxi- 
milian to  be  the  origin  of  his  ancestral  name,  Haps- 
burg. 

Frognal  —  Kate  Greenaway's  home  in  Hampstead, 
London. 


BECAUSE  OF  TREES 

The  Elms  —  Rudyard  Kipling's  home,  near  Brigh- 
ton, in  the  little  village  of  Rottingdean,  a  village  of 
old  English  flavor,  made  up  of  quaint  cottages  and 
inns,  and  abounding  in  picturesque  ways  and  by- 
paths. 

The  Willows  The  Maples 

Willow  Lodge  Maple  Place 

The  Beeches  The  Oaks 

The  Poplars  King's  Oak 

The  Conifers  Oak  Wold 

The  Evergreens  The  Lindens 

The  Cedars  Hemlock  Lodge 

Cedarcrest  The  Laurels 

Castle  Asliby  —  Elizabethan  estate,  showing 
marked  Italian  influence. 

Shrublands  —  English  estate  on  the  site  of  an  old 
monastery  garden. 

Hawthomden  —  associated  with  the  seventeenth- 
century  poet  William  Drummond. 

Oak   Knoll  —  old   place    with    columned    porches, 

box-bordered  gardens,  and  tree-shaded  lawns  where 

Whittier  lived  during  the  latter  part  of  his  life  and  of 

which  he  wrote :     "  Say  it  is  my  home.     I  retain  my 

14 


BECAUSE    OF    TREES  15 

legal  residence  in  Amesbury  and  I  go  there  to  vote, 
but  my  home  is  at  Oak  Knoll." 

Witchhazel  Cherry  Hill 

Witchwood  Cherry  Garth 

Bowood  Apple  Garth 

Ashridge  Tree  Tops 

Elmley  Castle  Hickory  Corners 

Elmwood  —  Cambridge  home  of  James  Russell  Lo- 
well. 

Cedarmere  —  Long  Island  home  of  William  Cullen 
Bryant. 

Cedarcroft  —  home  at  Cooperstown,  N.  Y.,  of 
Bayard  Taylor. 

Ashland  —  old  Kentucky  home  of  Henry  Clay. 

Orchard  House  —  Concord  home  of  Louisa  Alcott. 

One  Ash  —  home  to  which  John  Bright  took  his 
bride,  Elizabeth  Priestman ;  so  named  in  honor  of  an 
ash  which  was  a  conspicuous  feature  in  the  garden, 
as  well  as  for  an  ancestral  place  which  had  been  called 
Monyash.—  From  "  Life  of  J.  Bright,"  G.  M.  Tre- 
velyan. 

Pine  Haven  Box  Croft 

Lime  Close  Woodgarth 

Vieuxbois  Dingle 

Boxley  —  old  Cistercian  abbey  in  England  dating 
to  Doomsday. 

Cedar  Grove  —  old  homestead  near  Philadelphia 
built  by  EHzabeth  Paschell,  1748. 


16  THEPLACENAME 

Oakham  Cattle  —  Rutlandshire,  the  name  is  Saxon 
and  the  site  was  once  occupied  by  the  Romans. 

Ashley  —  old  Tudor  mansion,  Surrey,  originally 
built  in  form  of  an  H. 

Bearroc  Wood  —  old  Saxon  name  for  Bear  Wood. 

Brantwood  —  John  Ruskin's  home  at  Coniston. 

Woodcote  Manor  —  Hampshire  home  of  Seymour 
Hayden. 


FOR  LOVE  OF  WOODS  AND  WILDS 

Penshurst  —  one  of  the  rare  old  places  retaining 
characteristics  of  the  medieval  pleasaunce  and  re- 
calling with  its  terraces  and  hedges,  its  flowery  or- 
chards and  its  *'  winter  walk,"  the  days  of  Sir  Philip 
Sidney. 

Heatherholme  Point  Lookout 

Bramble  Brae  Porcupine  Point 

The  Elders  Rock  Ledge 

By-the-Sea  Overlook 

Sea-clifF  The  Eyrie 

Brockenhurst  Brinksea 

Fir  Tower  —  country  place  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Tunis  G.  Bergen  at  Onteora,  N.  Y. 

Forest  Hill  —  Mr.  Rockefeller's  home  in  Cleve- 
land. 

Arden  —  Harriman  estate  which  is  to  become  a 
public  park. 

Lyndhurst  (Gentle  Forest) — Gould  home  at 
Irvington-on-Hudson. 

Woodstock  —  thirteenth  century  pleasaunce  of 
which  it  is  recorded  that  Henry  III  for  Eleanor  of 
Provence  ordered  his  bailiff  to  "  make  round  about 
the  garden  of  our  queen  two  walls  good  and  high  " 
and  other  improvements  "  befitting  her  position." 

ir 


18  THE    PLACE    NAME 

The  Locusts  Hackmatack 

The  Sumachs  Holly  Lodge 

The  Sycamores  Pepperidge  Point 

Gingko  Camp  Thornsett 

Craig-y-parc  Winwood 

Ringnood  Wychewood 

TJwrnhury  —  moated  residence  of  Stafford  Duke 
of  Buckingham,  beheaded  1521. 

Pachwood  —  old  English  estate  with  famous  topi- 
ary work  simulating  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

Juniper  Hall  —  associated  with  Fanny  Burney 
and  her  French  friends,  emigres  during  the  Revolu- 
tion. 

Sanical  or  Sanicula  — 
"  It  maketh  whole  and  sound  all  inward  wounds  and 
outward  hurts." 

Gerarde's  "Herbal." 

The  Coppice  Winwood 

Wildewood  Driftwood 

Norwood  Brushwood 

Westwood  Rookwood 

Beechwood  Pinewood 

Birch  Corners  Blythwolde 

Holly  Lodge  —  residence  at  Highgate  of  Frances 
Burdett  Coutts. 

The  Dumbles  —  quaint  old  War^vickshore  name  for 
"  Little  woods  in  hollows." 

Wyldes  —  farm  at  Hampstead,  dating  to  the  time 
of  Henry  IV. 


WOODS    AND    WILDS  19 

Birdwood  —  old  colonial  mansion  possibly  de- 
signed by  Jefferson. 

Ausimhory  —  house  in  the  woods,  the  workshop 
and  studio  of  a  Western  craftsman  and  artist. 

The  Birches  Hurricane  Lodge 

Hawthorne  Hill  Solitude 

Laurel  Ledge  The  Tamaracks 

The  Ledges  Wych  Elm 

Wildeden  Windymoor 

Ballengiech  —  Scotch  for  a  steep  pass. 

Glen-Almain  (The  Narrow  Glen)  —  associated  by 
tradition  with  the  poet  Ossian.  (See  Wordsworth's 
poem.) 

Star  Rock  —  so  named  because  of  a  meteorite  fall- 
ing on  the  site. 

The  Bosch  —  Dutch  word  for  woods. 

Kelp  Rock  —  New  Castle,  N.  H. ;  summer  home  of 
E.  C.  Stedman, 


FOR  FAVORITE  FLOWERS 

Periwinkle,  or  Joy-of-the-ground  —  from  the 
French  Pervanche.  A  quaint  description  of  this 
flower  is  quoted  from  an  old  manuscript  in  Alice 
Morse  Earle's  "  Old-time  Gardens  " : 

*'  Perwjke  is  an  erbe  grene  of  colour, 
In  tyme  of  May  he  bereth  blue  flour. 
Ye  lef  is  thicke,  schinende  and  styf, 
As  is  ye  grene  Jwy  lefe. 
Under  brod  and  eurhand  round, 
Men  call  it  ye  joy  of  grownde." 

Mayflower  Cowslip 
Meadow-sweet                     .  Quaker  Bonnet 

Perseverance  Speedwell 

Anemone  Wakerobin 

Dandelion  Checkerberry 

Mignonette  Rosehill 

Primrose  Eglantine 

The  Lilacs  —  an  old  Colonial  mansion  in  Fair- 
mount  Park,  Philadelphia. 

Yarrow  —  rustic  cottage  at  Onteora  where  Mary 
Mapes  Dodge  used  to  spend  the  summer. 

Rosewell  —  old    Virginian    estate    on    the    York 

River,   an  unusually   large  brick  mansion  with   fine 

mahogany  wainscotings  and  carved  staircase.     Here, 

20 


FOR    FAVORITE    FLOWERS      21 

says  tradition,  Jefferson  made  his  first  draft  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

Pipsissewa  Rosemary 

Wildbrier  The  Mallows 

Chickweed  Columbine 

Heal-all  Bindweed 

Foxglove  Pennyroyal 

The  Flags  Celandine 

Dragon-head  Heart-of-the-earth 

Turn-Sole — (ME)  flowers  that  turn  towards 
the  sun  as  the  sun-flower  and  the  hehotrope. 

Heartsease  —  Hertesese:  ME  for  pansies  and 
violets  (Cent.  Dictionary). 


FOR  PLANTS 

Kalgarth  —  old  Scandinavian   for  vegetable  gar- 
den ;  farmstead  on  Lake  Windermere. 


Barberry 
Thistledown 
Glenfern  Castle 
Brambles 
Bonniethorne 
Stone  crop 
Squirrel-cup    (hepat- 
ica) 


Rosemary 
The  Myrtles 
Lavender  Lodge 
Brier  Patch 
Wild  Thyme 
Rock  Rose 
Knights-spur 


Lawn  BanJc  (Wentworth  Place,  Hampstead)  — 
residence  of  Keats  while  writing  part  of  "  Endy- 
mion." 

Burnet  — "  this  plant  maketh  the  heart  merrie  and 
glad."     Gerarde's  Herbal. 

Camomile  — "  The  oil  compounded  of  these  flow- 
ers is  a  remedy  against  all  wearisomeness."     Ibid. 


22 


INDIAN  NAMES 

Tuchdhoe  —  Indian  name  for  the  near-by  creek 
for  which  Colonel  Randolph  named  his  Virginia  plan- 
tation. 

Ta-tee-yo-pa  —  Welcome. 

O-ay-chay-tee  —  Hearthfire. 

0-kee-cho  —  All  Hail. 

Wo-wee-na-pe  —  Refuge. 

Wau-hay  —  Nest. 

Wah-ko-ne-ya  —  Place  of  Springs. 

Mirimichi  —  Happy  Retreat. 

Anoha  —  an  Indian  chief;  name  used  by  Mr.  Bal- 
lard for  his  place  on  Long  Island. 

Cataidssa  —  Clear  water. 

Loleta  — "  Pleasant  Place." 

Sherrewogue  —  one  of  the  oldest  houses  on  Long 
Island;  built  1695  at  St.  James,  now  belonging  to 
Mr.  Devereux  Emmett. 

Pickaway  —  the  Cat-tail. 

Onteora  —  hills  of  the  Sky. 

Orawack  —  wilderness. 

Wenanwetu  —  well-housed. 

Yovdwan  —  midst  of  the  mist. 

Adjidaumo  —  the  Red  Squirrel. 

Owaissa  —  the  Bluebird. 

Wawonaissa  —  the  Whippoorwill, 

Opechee  —  the  Robin. 

23 


24  THE    PLACE    NAME 

Shohola  —  sparkling  waters. 

Ano-a-tok  —  Eskimo  for  Home  of  the  Winds. 

Mereychawiclc  —  old  name  for  Brookl^'n ;  the 
sandy  place. 

Cuwen-Tianne  —  the  stream  that  runs  through 
pine  woods. 

Hilero  —  Indian  for  The  ClifF  home  of  W.  J. 
Bailey,  California. 

Yucca —  (the  only  flower  which  keeps  its  original 
Indian  name). 

Sagamore  Hill  —  Oyster  Bay  home  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt. 

Miramar  —  behold  the  sea. 

Minniwakan  —  spirit  water. 

Minooka  —  Good  earth. 

Wanaque  —  Sassafras  place. 

Pattaquonk  —  round  hill. 

Wauregan  —  a  good  thing. 

Abrigada  —  shelter. 

Weetamoo  —  Indian  for  Shell-flower. 

Yennycott  —  after  an  old  Sachem  on  the  east  end 
of  Long  Island. 

Keewaydin — "Home  Wind"  (Hiawatha)  coun- 
try estate  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Auchinloss,  at  Darien, 
Conn, 


WITH  FOREIGN  FLAVOR 

Upsala  —  old  colonial  house  in  Germantown, 
Philadelphia,  from  the  Swedish,  in  honor  of  the 
Swedish  author,  Frederika  Bremer,  who  had  been  a 
guest  at  the  house. 

Vriedendal  —  Dutch  for  Valley  of  Peace,  used  by 
the  Hugenot  exile,  M.  de  la  Montagnie,  for  his  farm 
in  Manhattan. 

Ingleneuk  Winkel-nook 

Waldesbach  Joyous  Gard 

La  Col'ma. —  little  hill. 

The  Agrada  —  it  pleases  me. 

La  Chaumiere  —  thatched  cottage. 

Bella  Vista  and  Buena  Vista. 

Benevente  —  an  actual  castle  in  Spain. 

Drachenfels  —  Norwegian  for  dragon's  rock. 

Craig-y-nos  —  Adelina  Patti's  castle  in  Wales. 

Auldhame  —  after  a  ruined  castle  in  Scotland. 

Placentia  —  country  place  of  James  Kirk,  Paul- 
ding. 

Monticello  —  ("  the  little  mount  ")  —  Virginia 
home  of  Thomas  Jefferson. 

Wahnfried  —  Richard  Wagner's  villa  at  Bey- 
reuth.     The  name  was  engraved  over  the  doorway 

and  over  one  of  the  windows  the  words :     "  Hier,  wo 

25 


26  THEPLACENAME 

mein  Wahn  Frieden  fand  "  (Here,  where  my  wander- 
ing spirit  found  rest). 

Los  Alamos — (the  poplars)  —  Spanish. 

Los  Alisos —  (the  alder  trees)  —  Spanish. 

Los  Olivos —  (the  olives)  — Spanish. 

Loma  Vista  —  view  from  a  hill  in  the  midst  of  a 
plain  —  Spanish. 

El  Pinal — (grove  of  pines)  —  Spanish. 

Miraflores  —  (behold   the   flowers)  —  Spanish. 

Torre  de  Campiglioni  —  in  Vallombrosa,  Italy ; 
the  home  of  Emma  Eames  (Mrs.  Story). 

Montebello  —  old  mansion  near  Natchez,  Miss. 

Belvoir  Castle  —  England —  (fair  view). 

Corvallis —  (heart  of  the  valley). 

Yama-no-Ucho  —  "  Home-in-the-mountains,"  be- 
longing to  Frank  Seaman. 

Groote  Schuur  —  South  African  home  of  Cecil 
Rhodes. 

Cawdor  Castle  —  supposed  to  be  made  up  of  Cal 
(sound)  and  Der  (water),  because  of  the  two  burns 
near  the  site  of  the  castle. 

Burg  Eltz  or  Trutz-Eltz  —  old  castle  on  the  Mo- 
selle. 

"  And  he  that  is  a  stranger  shall  not  pass  the 
gates  therof  until  he  Swear  the  Peace." 

Villa  al  Mare. 

Casa  del  Ponte. 

Elf  Buchen  —  eleven  beeches. 

Bijou  —  French  for  jewel. 

Gandercleugh  —  place  of  a  steep  cliff  or  ravine. 


WITH   FOREIGN   FLAVOR       27 

Clairvaux  (Clara  Vallis  or  Bright  Valley) 

Cistercian   monastery   founded  in   twelfth   cen- 
tury by  St.  Bernard. 
Boscobel    (Italian    for    fair    wood)  —  associated 
with  the  English  King  Charles  II. 

Biltmore  —  the  late  George  Vanderbilt's  place  in 
North  Carolina,  made  up  of  the  last  syllable  in  his 
own  name  plus  the  Gaelic  Mor,  "  great." 
Joyous  Gard  — 

The  Garde  Joyeuse,  amid  the  tale, 
High  reared  its  glittering  head; 

And  Avalon's  enchanted  vale 
In  all  its  wonders  spread. 

Sir  Walter  Scott. 


WITH  HOMifiLY  FLAVOR 


Craigenputtoch  —  farm  where  Carlyle  wrote 
"  Sartor  Resartus." 

Porch  House  —  site  of  home  at  Chertsey  of  Abra- 
ham Cowley. 


The  Farmstead 
Fern  Hill 
Inglenook 
Ingleside 
The  Gables 
Cobbleshack 


The  Bandbox 
Justamere   House 
Boxcroft 
The  Bee-hive 
Orchard  House 
Orchard  Lea 


Orchard-Farm  —  place  of  Governor  Endicott  at 
Salem. 

Solitude  —  country  seat  of  William  Penn. 

Sedgley  —  country  seat  of  William  Crammond, 
Esq.,  Pennsylvania. 

The  Cote —  (little  cottage). 

The  Croft — (an  enclosed  tract). 


FAMOUS  PLACE  NAMES  IN 
FICTION 

Vailima  —  Stevenson's  island  home  where,  like  a 
lord  of  the  Middle  Ages,  he  dispensed  justice  and 
counsel  to  the  Samoans  whose  most  touching  token 
of  gratitude  to  their  Tusitala  (story-teller)  was 
"  The  Road  of  the  Loving  Heart." 

House  of  the  Seven  Gables  —  Hawthorne. 

BUthedale  —  in  "  The  Blithedale  Romance  "  by 
Hawthorne. 

Bleak  House  —  Dickens.  Suggested  by  the  real 
name  of  a  house  which  he  rented. 

Tower  Hill  —  Dickens. 

Cranford  —  Mrs.  Gaskell's  story  of  that  name. 

Lammermoor  —  in  the  "  Bride  of  Lammermoor  " 

—  Scott. 

Woodstock  —  novel  of  the  name  —  Scott. 
Castle  Rackrent  —  in  novel  of  the  name,  by  Maria 
Edgeworth. 

The  Crossways  —  in  "  Diana  of  the  Crossways  " 

—  George  Meredith. 

Sevenoaks  —  title  of  a  novel  by  J.  G.  Holland. 

Happy  Valley  —  in  "  Rasselas  " —  by  Dr.  Samuel 
Johnson. 

Wakefield  —  in  Goldsmith's  "  Vicar  of  Wake- 
field." 

Avalon  —  a  little  ocean  isle  described  in  Middle 
29 


30  THEPLACENAME 

Age  romances,  especially  in  that  of  "  Ogier  the 
Dane." 

Kentlworth  Castle  —  Robert  Laneham  in  the  six- 
teenth century  wrote  of  it :  "  The  place  was  beau- 
tified with  many  delectable,  fresh  and  unbrageous 
bowers,  arbours,  seats,  and  walks,  that  with  great 
art,  cost  and  diligence  were  very  pleasurably  ap- 
pointed." 

Thornfield  Hall  —  in  "  Jane  Eyre  "  by  Charlotte 
Bronte. 

Headlong  Hall  —  novel  by  Thomas  Love  Peacock. 

Crotchet  Castle  —  novel  by  Thomas  Love  Peacock. 

The  Castle  of  Otranto  —  in  romance  of  the  name 
by  Horace  Walpole, 

Castle  Dangerous  —  in  tale  of  the  name  by  Scott. 

Caddam  Wood  —  in  Barrie's  "  Little  Minister," 
used  by  Maude  Adams  for  her  Long  Island  home. 

Caddam  Hill  —  used  by  Maude  Adams  for  her 
mountain  home,  Onteora. 

House  of  the  Whispering  Pines  —  Anna  Katherine 
Green. 

House  with  the  Green  Shutters  —  G.  D.  Brown. 

House  of  the  Wolfings  —  William  Morris. 

The  Mountain  of  Flowers  —  site  of  fairy  palace  in 
"The  White  Cat,"  Countess  D'Aulnoy,  1682. 

Cheverel  Manor  — "  Mr.  Gilfil's  Love-story,"  by 
George  Eliot. 

LouicJc  Manor  —  home  of  the  Casaubons  in 
George  Eliot's  "  Middlemarch." 

Barchester  Towers  —  in  novel  of  the  name  by 
Anthony  Trollope. 


PLACE  NAMES  FAMED  FOR 
FAMOUS  FOLK 

Stormfield — (first  called  "Innocence-at-home") 
Mark  Twain's  place  at  Redding,  which,  although  in 
Italian  villa  style,  was  carried  out  with  such  sim- 
plicity and  adaptation  to  the  site  that  he  said :  "  It 
might  have  been  here  always." 

Orchard-side  —  Cowper's  home  at  Olney. 

The  Manse  —  Hawthorne's  at  Concord. 

The  Wayside  —  Emerson's  home  at  Concord. 

Slabsides  —  mountain  cabin  of  John  Burroughs. 

Stoke  Court  —  associated  with  the  poet  Gray. 

Gad's  Hill  —  Dickens'  place. 

The  Haven  —  country  place  of  Quiller-Couch. 

Box  Hill  —  George  Meredith's  home. 

Abbotsford  —  home  of  Sir  Walter  Scott. 

Mt.  Vernon  —  Washington's  home. 

Sunnyside  —  Washington  Irving's  home. 

Penshurst  —  associated  with  Sir  Philip  Sidney. 

The  Red  House  —  associated  with  William  Mor- 
ris. 

Strawberry  Hill  —  Walpole's  Gothic  mansion. 

Grumblethorpe  —  the  Wister  homestead,  German- 
town,  Pa.,  built  in  1744. 

Holly  Bush  Inn  —  house  built  at  Hampstead  by 
Romney. 

HoUy  Lodge  —  house  lived  in  by  Macaulay. 
31 


32  THE    PLACE    NAME 

The  Wakes  —  Gilbert  White's  home  at  Selborne. 
It  has  been  enlarged  since  he  lived  there  but  none  of 
the  alterations  have  disturbed  "  the  harmony  of  red 
bricks  and  tiles  blending  with  the  luxurious  verdure 
of  bushes  and  ivy." 

Hodeslea  —  home  of  Thomas  Huxley  at  East- 
bourne. "  One  is  obliged  to  have  names  here,"  wrote 
he.  "  Mine  will  be  '  Hodeslea '  Avhich  is  as  near  as 
I  can  go  to  '  Hodesleia,'  the  original  poetical  shape 
of  my  very  ugly  name." 

Ponkapog  —  (Ponkapog  Papers)  —  Thomas 
Bailey  Aldrich. 

Yaddo  —  home  of  Katrina  Trask  at  Saratoga. 

Limnerslease  — •  Surrey  home  of  Frederick  Watts. 

The  Fair  Haven  —  Kent,  country  place  of  Miss 
Laurence  Alma  Tadema. 

Priory  Lodge  —  owned  by  Sir  Edward  Terry. 

Georgian  Court  - —  country  place  at  Lakewood, 
N.  J.,  owned  by  George  Gould. 

Court  Farm  —  Broadway,  Gloucestershire,  home 
of  Madame  Navarro  (Mary  Anderson). 

Hope  Lodge  —  an  old  Colonial  mansion  in  Penn- 
sylvania, owned  originally  by  Samuel  Morris. 

Maxwelton  House  —  birthplace  of  Annie  Laurie, 
famed  in  Burns'  song. 


PUNNING  AND  PLAYFUL  NAMES 

Wayside  Hatoquitit 

By  the  Way  Kumtoit 

Playfield  Bonnythorpe 

Happy  Acres  L' Allegro 

Heartsease  Star  Nook 

LafFalot  Barrow  Court 

Wendover  Penny-Royal 

IdlewUd  —  country  place  of  N.  P.  Willis. 

Annandale  —  David  Hume's  house  at  Chiswick. 

Chateau  Gaillard — (Saucy  Castle)  fortress  built 
by  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  to  defend  Rouen  against 
Philip  Augustus. 

Postscript  —  addenda  in  the  shape  of  a  little  house 
"  for  good  times  "  on  country  place  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
James  H.  Post,  L.  I. 

The  Fold  —  studio  of  Charles  and  Ella  C.  Lamb 
at  Cresskill,  New  Jersey. 

Tarry-awhile  —  country  place  of  George  W. 
Cable. 

Kanahzi'a  —  place  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Martin  Joost 
at  Quogue,  L.  I. 

Yaddo  —  Trask  estate  at  Saratoga  ("  Shadow  "). 

Arden  —  the  Harriman  estate,  N.  Y. 

Kenna-quhair  and  Kennahtwhar  —  "  I  don't  know 
where." 

33 


THE    PLACE    NAME 


Pleasaunce  —  suggested  by  Bacon's  essay  on  Gar- 
dens, and  used  by  Mr.  A.  M.  Huntington  at  Bay- 
chester,  N.  Y. 

Shingle  Blessedness  —  the  bungalow  of  Guy  Wet- 
more  Caryl  and  used  in  the  whimsical  title  of  one  of 
his  stories. 


Arcady 
As-you-like-it 
Tuckaway 
Fairy  Knowe 
Elfinsland 
Camp  Kill  Kare 
Sunne  Holm 
Questover 
Hadaway  House 
The  Hut 
Pett  Place 
Casanostra 


Idlenook 

Plough  Court 

Faraway  Farm 

Tother  House 

Overyonder  Lodge 

Wendover 

Otherwise 

Ownest 

Camp  Tuckatrowel 

Sunnymead 

Sojem 


Mostly  Hall  —  country  place  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Upjohn  at  Babylon,  L.  L 

Poverty  Flat  —  cottage  at  Beverly  Farms,  so 
called  by  Dr.  Holmes  because  "  next  door  to  Pride's 
Crossing." 


MOTTOES  FOR  HEARTH  AND 
GARTH 


One  of  the  best  secrets  of  enjoyment  is  the  art  of  cultivating 
pleasant  associations. 

Leigh  Hunt. 


INTRODUCTION 

RUE,  deeds,  not  words,  make  the 
homely  home  and  to  most  of  us  to- 
day the  use  of  many  serious  mottoes 
or  inscriptions  in  our  houses  and 
gardens  would  savour  of  cant  or  at 
the  least  of  a  sort  of  wearing  our 
hearts  upon  our  sleeves.  Anciently 
the  more  religious  the  text  the  better, —  and  that  on 
the  house-fa9ade  as  well  as  within-doors  and  in  gar- 
den cloister.  It  was  by  Mosaic  command  that  each 
head  of  a  household  among  the  Israelites  put  up  a 
symbol  on  the  flap  of  his  tent.  The  Romans  were 
proverbially  addicted  to  mottoes  and  throughout  the 
Middle  Ages  and  Renaissance  days  the  custom  con- 
tinued. One  still  finds  in  Europe  traces  of  it,  and 
an  occasional  example  of  its  hanging  on  into  our  own 
early  colonial  times  is  to  be  noted.  As  witness,  the 
naive  distich  on  the  exterior  wall  of  the  house  of  our 
first  botanist,  John  Bartram. 

"  'Tis  God  alone,  Almighty  Lord, 
The  Holy  One,  by  me  Adored." 

Our  Puritan  forebears  were  so  fond  of  moral  max- 
ims that  it  is  said  they  went  so  far  as  to  embroider 

texts   on  their  clothes.     As  Fairholt  puts   it,  they 

37 


38  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

moralized  even  their  dress.  Having  such  prece- 
dents, then,  it  is  perhaps  not  "  unseemlie "  for  us 
moderns  to  get  a  more  superficial  enjoyment  out  of 
mottoes  and  to  utilize  them,  not  too  seriously,  here 
over  a  doorway,  there  over  a  fireplace,  or  again  on 
some  article  of  sheer  homely  use. 

To  get  the  maximum  of  fun  out  of  the  thing  we 
will  inscribe  the  words  in  decorative  lettering,  in  a 
foreign  tongue,  or  in  some  quaint  symbolic  or  hiero- 
glyphic wise.  However  we  arrive  at  it,  the  end  to 
aim  at  is  the  enhancement  of  our  material  possession 
(be  it  humble  and  utilitarian  or  be  it  fine  and  fair) 
by  the  grace  of  ideal  association.  In  this  way  we 
may  now  and  then  take  a  peep  at  worlds  outside  our 
own  daily  treadmill-round  and  thus  get  away  for  an 
instant,  in  spirit  if  not  in  fact,  from  that  extremely 
minute  and  personal  attitude  of  ours  which  makes 
for  the  "  pettiness  of  house  life." 


OVER-DOOR  INSCRIPTIONS 

Used  by  Alma   Tadema   for  his   house  entrance  in 
London : 

Salve. 
(Welcome) 

On  house  of  Rosina,  Bologna,  Italy : 

Non  Domo  Dominus,  sed  Domino  Domus. 
(Not  the  master  for  the  house,  but  the  house  for 
the  master.) 

Stone  carving  over  a  front  door  in  Gloucestershire: 

Un  Corpus  Animo 
Sic   Domus    Corpori. 
(As  is  the  body  to  the  soul, 
^  So  is  the  house  to  the  body.) 

Wrought  in  the  timberwork  of  a  house  in  Chester, 
said  to  be  the  only  one  spared  by  the  Plague: 

The  Providence  of  the  Almighty  is  my  Salvation, 
1652. 

Inscription  on  an  old  house  front  in  the  Cowgate, 

Edinburgh : 

Gif  we  deid  as  we  sould. 

We  might  haf  as  we  vould. 
39 


40  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

On  a  palazza  in  the  Via  de  Cornari,  Rome : 
Non  Omnis  possumus  Omnes. 
(We  are  not  all  of  us  able  to  do  all  things.) 

Motto    inscribed    between    two    hearts    on    Jacques 
Coeur's  house,  Bourges : 

A  Vaillens,  tiens  impossibles. 
(To  the  brave  nothing  is.  iinpjossible. ) 

Inscription  over  the  door  of*  the  house  in  which  Sel- 
den  was  born,  in  Selvington,  Sussex: 

Gratus,  honesti,  mihi ;  non  claudar  inito  sedeq'. 
Fur,  abeas ;  non  su'  facta  soluta  tibi. 

(Paraphrased  —  Thou'rt  welcome,  honest  friend ; 
walk  in,  make  free;  Thief,  get  thee  gone,  my  doors 
ope  not  to  thee.) 

For  the  doorway  of  Veronica's  manor-house ;  trans- 
lation of  Alfred  Austin: 

Aude,  hospes,  contemnere  opes,  et  te  quoque  dignum 
Finge  deo ;  rebusque  veni  non  asper  egenis. 

(Have  the  courage,  dear  guest,  to  disdain  osten- 
tion  and  with  godlike  indulgence  approach  our  un- 
pretentious dwelling.)  Virgil. 

Inscription  on  a  pane  of  glass  in  Holland  House; 
cut  by  Hookham  Frere,  1811: 

May  neither  fire  destroy,  nor  waste  impair. 
Nor  time  consume  thee  till  the  twentieth  heir; 
May  taste  respect  thee,  and  may  Fashion  spare. 


OVER-DOOR    INSCRIPTIONS      41 

Stranger,  should  this  catch  your  eye, 
Do  a  favor  passing  by; 
Bless  this  house  ere  you  be  gone 
And  it  shall  bless  you  —  passing  on. 

If  this  house  be  fine  or  not, 
That  was  not  my  serious  thought, 
But  it  will  have  gained  its  ends 
Should  we  find  it  full  of  friends. 

I  built  this  house  of  stone  and  wood 
I  made  it  handsome  as  I  could. 
If  it  only  pleases  thee. 
Then  it  could  not  better  be. 

Charles  Godfrey  Leland. 

Old  motto  on  town-hall,  Wittemberg: 

Ist's  Gottes  Werk,  so  wird's  bestehen ; 
Ist's  Menschens,  so  wird's  untergehen. 

(If  God's  work,  'twill  age  endure; 

If  Man's,  'tis  not  a  minute  sure.) 

Home,  my  own  home,  tiny  though  thou  be,  to  me  thou 
seemest  an  abbey. 

Italian  proverb. 

Dies  Haus  steht  in  Gottes  Hand. 

Gott  behut's  von  Flur  und  Brand. 

(This  house  rests  in  God's  hand, 

May  he  protect  it  from  flood  or  firebrand.) 


42  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Der  Gottliche  Segen  erfulle  dies  Haus 
Und  die  da  gehen  ein  und  aus. 
(May  God's  blessing  fill  this  house, 
And  rest  on  all  who  go  in  or  out.) 

Old  Swiss, 

Wer  Gott  vertraut, 

Hat  wohl  gebaut. 

(Who  trusts  in  God 

Hath  well  built.) 

Old  Swiss, 

Device  on  an  old  house  in  Bruges: 

Within  me  there  is  more. 

Ad  ogni  uccello,  suo  nido  e  bello. 
(To  every  bird  its  nest  is  fair.) 

Italian  proverb, 

Parva,  sed  apta  mihi,  sed  nulli  obnoxia,  sed  non 
Sordida,  parta  meo  sed  tamen  aere  domus. 

Ariosto. 

Small  is  my  humble  roof,  but  well  designed, 
To  suit  the  temper  of  the  master's  mind ; 
Hurtful  to  none,  it  boasts  a  decent  pride. 
That  my  poor  purse  the  modest  cost  supplied. 
Translation  of  Hoole. 

Maison  petite,  mais  commode  pour  moi ; 
Mais  incommode  a  personne,  mais  assez  propre, 
Mais  pourtant  achetee  de  mes  propres  fonds. 
French  version,  hy  Mine.  Bury  Palisser, 


OVER-DOOR    INSCRIPTIONS      43 

Over  doorway  of  the  house  of  Francis  Bacon's  father : 

Mediocria  firma. 

(Firm  is  the  middle  state.) 

House  of  John  Knox,  Edinburgh: 

Lufe  God  Abvee  Al;  And  Yi  Nichtbors  As  Yi  Self. 

On  a  Swiss  house : 

Ein  Haus  ist  wohl  ein  schone  sach, 
Von  Menschenhanden  ist's  gemacht; 
Doch  hangt  es  ab  von  Gott  allein, 
Ob  Gliick,  ob  Ungliick  Kommt  hinein. 
(A  House  is  a  fine  thing, 
It  is  made  by  men's  hands ; 
But  it  depends  on  God  alone, 
Whether  happiness  or  unhappiness  shall  come 
therein.) 

Translation  of  Caulfeild. 

Deus  Adest  Laborantibus. 
(God  is  on  the  side  of  them  that  labor.) 

Wrought  in  carving  of  parapet  roof.  Castle  Ashby, 
Northamptonshire,  England : 

Nisi  Dominus  custodiat  domum,  frustra  vigilat 

qui  custodit  eam. 

(Unless  God  guards  the  house ;  he  labors  in  vain 

who  guards  it.) 


44  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Over-door  inscription  on  a  house  at  Northants,  Eng- 
land: 

He  that  earneth  wages 
By  labour  and  care, 
By  the  Blessing  of  God 
May  have  something  to  spare. 

T.  B.,  1618. 
S.  F.  A.  CauJfeild, 

Over  an  entrance  in  Edinburgh: 

He  Yt  Tholis  Overcumms. 
(He  that  endures,  overcomes.) 

Noted  on  a  house  front  in  Gloucestershire,  by  Caul- 
field: 

Nichtz  Zonder  Arbyt. 
(Nothing  without  work.) 

Seventeenth-century  inscription  similarly  wrought  on 
open  parapet  at  Temple  Newsam. 

All  Glory  and  Praise  be  given  to  God  the  Father, 
the  Son  and 

Holy  Ghost  on  High ;  Peace  upon  Earth,  Good- 
will Towards  Men ; 

Honour  and  True  Allegiance  to  Our  Gracious 
King;  Loving  Affections 

Among  His  Subjects,  Health  and  Plenty  within 
ithis  House. 


OVER-DOOR    INSCRIPTIONS      45 

On  an  old  house  in  Florence  near  Giotto's  tower: 

Casa  mea,  casa  mea,  piccola  che  sia, 
Sei  sempre,  casa  mea. 
(My  house,  my  house,  small  though  'tis, 
Still  always  my  house.) 

Over  an  entrance  Oriel,  Hengrave  Hall: 

Opus  Hoc  Fieri  Fecit  Toma  Kytson  —  In  Dieu 

Et  Mon  Droit  — 
Anno  D'  ni  MCCCCC  Tricesimo  Octavo. 

To  Edmund  Gosse,  with  Vincent  Bourne's  Poetical 
iWorks : 

Gossip,  may  we  live  as  now, 
Brothers  ever,  I  and  thou; 
Us  may  never  Envy's  mesh  hold, 
Anger  never  cross  our  threshold; 
Let  our  modest  Lares  be 
Friendship  and  Urbanity. 

Austin  Dobson. 

The  lintel  low  enough  to  keep  out  pomp  and  pride: 
The  threshold  high  enough  to  turn  deceit  aside: 
The  doorband  strong  enough  from  robbers   to  de- 
fend: 
This  door  will  open  at  a  touch  to  welcome  every 
friend. 
From  "  Inscriptions  for  a  Friend's  House,"' 

Henry  van  Dyke. 


46  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Greeting  in  gypsy  tongue : 

Kushto  bak. 
(Good-luck  to  you.) 


CHIMNEYPIECE  MOTTOES 

The  Hearth: 

God  rest  you  all  that  linger  here, 
Though  you  be  strange  you  still  are  dear. 
Peace  to  your  hearts,  if  you  abide, 
Reflect,  and  give  your  souls  to  cheer. 

The  Plaster  on  the  Chimney: 

These  words  in  time  shall  pass  away 
And  moulder  with  the  mouldering  clay, 
Learn  thou  that  only  passing  things 
May  know  the  blessedness  of  wings. 

"  Maxims  for  an  Old  House,'* 
An/na  Hempstead  Branch. 

Home: 

A  world  of  care  shut  out, 
A  world  of  love  shut  in. 

Dora  Greenwell. 

My  Ain  Fireside: 

Of  a'  roads  to  happiness  ever  were  tried. 
There's  nane  half  so  sure  as  ane's  ain  fireside: 

My  ain  fireside,  my  ain  fireside, 

O  there's  nought  to  compare  wi'  ane's  ain  fireside. 

Elizabeth  Hamilton, 

47 


48  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Quoted  by  Lowell  in  "  Essay  on  Democracy." 
Be  your  own  palace  or  the  world's  your  goal. 

Unidentified. 

If  solid  happiness  we  prize, 

Within  our  breast  this  jewel  lies, 

And  they  are  fools  who  roam. 

The  world  has  nothing  to  bestow ; 

From  our  own  selves  our  joys  must  flow, 

And  that  dear  hut,  our  home. 

From  "  The  Fireside"  Nathaniel  Cotton. 

Klein  aber  Mein. 

Right  off  hand  your  story  tell 

Unto  your  bosom  crony, 
But  still  keep  something  to  yoursel' 

You  shouldn't  tell  to  ony. 

Unideiitified. 

Never  neglect  your  fireplaces ;  I  have  paid  great 
attention  to  mine,  and  could  burn  you  all  out  in  a 
moment.  Much  of  the  cheerfulness  of  life  depends 
upon  it.  Who  could  be  miserable  with  that  fire? 
What  makes  a  fire  so  pleasant  is,  I  think,  that  it  is 
a  live  thing  in  a  dead  room. 

Sydney  Smith. 

Thou  mayest  be  sure  that  he  that  will  in  private 
tell  thee  of  thy  faults,  is  thy  friend,  for  he  adven- 
tures thy  dislike  and  doth  hazard  thy  hatred. 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 


CHIMNEYPIECE    MOTTOES      49 

With  arms  of  the  Campbells  and  Calders  and  the 
date  1516,  in  dining-room  mantelpiece  at  Cawdor 
Castle : 

Be  mindful. 

The  fire  burns  brightest  on  one's  own  hearth. 

Unidentified. 

Fireside  happiness,  to  hours  of  ease 
Blest  with  that  charm,  the  certainty  to  please. 

Samuel  Rogers. 

Behold!  how  great  a  matter  a  little  fire  kindleth. 

James  Hi,  5. 

Sir,  he  made  a  chimney  in  my  father's  house,  and 
the  bricks  are  alive  at  this  day  to  testify  it. 

Shakespeare. 

Now  stir  the  fire,  and  close  the  shutters  fast, 
Let  fall  the  curtains,  wheel  the  sofa  round, 
And  while  the  bubbling  and  loud-hissing  urn 
Throws  up  a  steamy  column,  and  the  cups 
That  cheer  but  not  inebriate  wait  on  each, 
So  let  us  welcome  peaceful  evening  in. 

William  Cowper. 

A  vaut  mieux  pour  moi  de  ne  pas  fumer. 
(I  would  better  not  smoke.) 

French  conceit. 


60  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

In  this  safe  anchorage 

Find  welcome  and  good  cheer. 

Unidentified. 

may  burst  a  mighty  flame.— 
Dante. 

The  hearth  has  ever  been  the  cornerstone  of  the 
family  and  of  society. 

John  Bellows. 

His  wee  bit  ingle,  blinkin'  bonnily, 

His  clean  hearth-stane,  his  thriftie  wifie's  smile, — 

Does  a'  his  weary  kiaugh  an'  care  beguile. 

Robert  Burns. 

The  art  of  life  consists  in  a  constant  readjust- 
ment to  our  surroundings. 

"  The  Book  of  Tea,"  Okakura-Kakuzo. 

Teaism  is  the  art  of  concealing  beauty  that  you 
may  discover  it,  of  suggesting  what  you  dare  not  re- 
veal. It  is  the  noble  secret  of  laughing  at  yourself, 
calmly  yet  thoroughly,  and  thus  humour  itself, —  the 
smile  of  philosophy. 

"  The  Book  of  Tea,"  Okak-ura-K akuzo. 

Those  who  cannot  feel  the  littleness  of  great  things 
in  themselves  are  apt  to  overlook  the  greatness  of 
little  things  in  others. 

Ibid. 


OF  HOME  AS  HOME 

Who  creates  a  home  creates  a  potent  spirit  which 
in  turn  doth  fashion  him  that  fashioned. 

Unidentified. 

East,  west,  at  home  the  best. 

Old  German  proverb. 

A  little  bird  wants  but  a  little  nest. 

Italian. 

Contented  wi'  little  and  cantie  wi'  mair. 

"  Contented  wi*  Little," 
Robert  Burns. 

For  a  man's  house  is  his  castle. 

Sir  Edward  Coke. 

He  that  hath  a  house  to  put  his  head  in,  hath  a 
good  headpiece. 

"  King  Lear,''  Shakespeare. 

Wo  Friede,  da  Freude. 
(Where  there's  peace,  there  is  joy.) 

Old  German  saying. 

Home  is  the  place  of  peace. 

John  Ruskin. 
51 


52  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

There  is  no  Wealth  but  Life. 

John  Ruskin. 

The  greatest  Wealth  is  Contentment  with  Little. 

Old  English. 

Inscribed    in   Greek,  at    Conway   Castle  —  "a    curi- 
ously-selected motto  for  a  feudal  stronghold  " : 
Bear  and  forbear. 

S.F  A.  Caulfeild. 


Non  Multa,  sed  Multum. 
(Not  many  things,  but  much.) 


Latin. 


Mid  pleasures  and  palaces  though  we  may  roam, 
Be  it  ever  so  humble,  there's  no  place  like  home. 

John  Howard  Payne. 

Poco  roba 
Poco  pensieri. 
(Little  wealth 
Little  Care.) 

Old  Italian, 

Grande  chere  et  beau  feu. 
(Good  cheer  and  a  good  fire.) 

French. 
My  fire  is  my  friend. 

Unidentifed. 


OFHOMEASHOME  53 

There  is  no  place  like  a  chimney-corner  for  confi- 
dences, for  picking  up  the  clews  of  an  old  friend- 
ship. 

The  fireplace  is  a  window  through  which  we  can 
look  out  upon  other  scenes. 

Unidentified. 

The  cantre  fire  where  cronies  meet. 

Scotch  proverb. 

There  can  no  great  smoke  arise, 
But  there  must  be  some  fire. 

"  Euphues,"  Lyly. 

Behold  how  great  a  matter  a  little  fire  kindleth. 

James  Hi,  3. 

While  I  was  musing,  the  fire  burned. 

Psalm  xxxix.sy, 

Where  glowing  embers  through  the  room, 
Teach  light  to  counterfeit  a  gloom, 
Far  from  all  resort  of  mirth, 
Save  the  cricket  on  the  hearth. 

"  II  Penseroso,"  Milton. 

A  clear  fire,  a  clean  hearth,  and  the  rigour  of  the 
game. 

"  Mrs.  Beattie's  Chat  on  Whist," 
Charles  Lamb. 


64  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Shut  in  from  all  the  world  without, 
I  sit  the  clean-winged  hearth  about, 

Content  to  let  the  bleak  wind  roar 
In  baffled  rage  at  pane  and  door ; 

While  the  red  logs  before  me  beat 

The  cold  line  back  with  pleasant  heat. 

Unidentified. 

Dissolve  frigus,  ligna  semper  foco. 
(Drive  away  the  cold,  heaping  logs  upon  the  fire.) 

Odes  ix,  I,  Horace. 

When  the  logs  are  burning  free. 
Then  the  fire  is  full  of  glee ; 
When  each  heart  gives  out  its  best, 
Then  the  talk  is  full  of  zest: 
Light  your  fire  and  never  fear. 
Life  was  made  for  love  and  cheer. 
"  The  Hearthstone,"  Henry  van  Dyke. 

Now  what  can  man  more  desire, 
Nor  sitting  by  a  sea-coal  fire. 

Old  English  ditty. 

To  make  a  home  out  of  a  household,  given  the  raw 
materials,  to  wit,  wife,  children,  a  friend  or  two,  and 
a  house,  two  other  things  are  necessary:  these  are, 
a  good  fire  and  good  music. 

From  "  Tiger  Lilies:  A  Novel,** 
Sidney  Lanier, 


OFHOMEASHOME  55 

Better  a  wee  fire  to  warm  ye, 
Than  a  big  fire  to  burn  ye. 

Scotch  proverb. 

Emblazoned  in  banquet-hall,  Knebworth  Castle  (an- 
cestral home  of  Bulwer)  : 

Read  the  Rede  of  the  Old  Roof  Tree. 
Here  be  trust  fast.     Opinion  free. 
Knightly  Right  Hand.     Christian  Knee. 
Worth  in  All.     Wit  in  Some. 
Laughter  open.     Slander  dumb. 
Hearth  where  rooted  Friendships  grow. 
Safe  as  Altar  even  to  Foe. 
And  the  sparks  that  upward  go 
When  the  hearth  flame  dies  below, 
If  thy  sap  in  them  may  be, 
Fear  no  Winter,  Old  Roof  Tree. 


Inscription  for  the  window  of  Katrina's  Tower  at 
«  Yaddo  " : 

This  is  the  window's  message. 

In  silence,  to  the  Queen: 
"  Thou  hast  a  double  kingdom 

And  I  am  set  between: 
liOok  out  and  see  the  glory, 

On  hill  and  plain  and  sky: 
Look  in  and  see  the  light  of  love 

That  nevermore  shall  die." 


56  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

l'  envoi: 

Window  in  the  Queen's  high  tower, 
This  shall  be  thy  magic  power ! 
Shut  the  darkness  and  the  doubt, 
Shut  the  storm  and  conflict,  out; 
Wind  and  hail  and  snow  and  rain 
Dash  against  thee  all  in  vain. 
Let  in  nothing  from  the  night, — 
Let  in  every  ray  of  light. 

Henry  van  Dylce, 

A  merry  heart  goes  all  the  day. 
Your  sad  one  tires  in  a  mile-a. 

Winters'  Tale,  IV,  2,  Song. 
Shakespeare, 

Let  the  world  wagge,  and  take  mine  Ease  in  mine 
Inne. 

Proverbes,  Thomas  Heywood. 

Good  courage  breaks  ill-luck. 

Old  proverb. 

Language  was  given  to  .us  that  we  might  say  pleas- 
ant things  to  each  other. 

"  Summaries  of  Thought"  Bovee. 

On  mantelpiece,  Hardwick  Hall: 

The  Conclusion  of  all  things  is  to  feare  God  and 
keepe  His  Commandments. 


OF    HOME    AS    HOME  67 

Ye  are  very  welcome  to  our  house: 
It  must  appear  in  other  ways  than  words. 
"  Merchant  of  Venice,"'  ShaJcespeare. 

In  a  house  in  Chislehurst: 

This  is  the  welcome  I'm  to  tell, — 
Ye  are  well  come,  ye  are  come  well. 

Whan  freens  meet,  hearts  warm. 

Old  Scotch  proverb. 

He  who  has  a  thousand  friends  has  not  a  friend  to 
spare. 

Ali  Ben  Abu  Taleb. 

Au  Dieu  Foy,  Aux  Amis  Foyer. 
(To  God  our  faith,  to  our  friends  our  fireside.) 

Old  French. 

Who  shall  say  how  far  sympathy  reaches,  and  how 
truly  love  can  prophesy? 

William  Makepeace  Thackeray. 

IMaythe  smile  an  the  face  be  but. a  reflection  of 
the  feeling  of  the  heart. 

Old  English  proverb. 

Welcome  the  coming,  speed  the  parting  guest. 

The  Odyssey,  Bk.  XV, 
Alexander  Pope's  translation. 


68  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Where  there  is  room  in  the  heart 
There  is  room  in  the  house. 

Unidentifed. 

Peace  be  within  thy  walls. 

Old  Testament, 

O,  turn  thy  rudder  hitherward  awhile, 
Here  may  thy  storm-beat  vessel  safely  ride; 
This  is  the  port  of  rest  from  troublous  toil, 
The  world's  Sweet  Inn,  from  pain  and  wearisome 
turmoil. 

Edmund  Spenser. 

A  man's  house  is  his  castle. 

Speak  kind  words- and  you  will  hear  kind  echoes. 

Unidentified. 

Here  rest  your  wings  when  they  are  weary ; 
Here  lodge  as  in  a  sanctuary. 

From  "  To  a  Butter  fly,'' 
William  Wordsworth. 

Of  what  shall  a  man  be  proud  if  he  is  not  proud 
of  his  friends? 


And  if  we  find  but  one  to  whom  we  can  speak  out 
our  heart  freely,  with  whom  we  can  walk  in  love  and 
simplicity  without  dissimulation,  we  have  no  ground 
of  quarrel  with  the  world  or  God. 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 


OFHOMEASHOME  59 

My  friend  is  one  before  whom  I  may  be  sincere. 
Before  him  I  may  think  aloud. 

Emerson. 

To  be  rich  in  friends  is  to  be  poor  in  nothing. 

The~  ornament  of  a  house  is  the  friends  who  fre- 
quent it. 

I  try  to  make  my  enmities  transient,  and  my 
friendships  eternal. 

Cicero. 

Cut  on  an  old  hearthpiece  of  a  stone  house  in  Wales : 
When  friends  meet,  hearts  warm. 

The  dearest  friends  are  the  auldest  friends. 

Scotch  saying. 

The  art  of  friendship  is  the  greatest  art  in  life. 
"  Studies  in  Contemporary  Biography," 

James  Bryce. 

Treat  your  friends  for  what  you  know  them  to 
be.  Regard  no  surfaces.  Consider  not  what  they 
did,  but  what  they  intended. 

Thoreau. 

Wise,  cultivated,  genial  conversation  is  the  last 
flower  of  civilization  and  the  best  result  which  life 
has  to  offer  us, —  a  cup  for  gods,  which  has  no  re- 
pentance. 

"  Miscellanies,"  Emerson. 


60  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

May  the  hinges  of  friendship  never  rust,  nor  the 
wings  of  love  ever  lose  a  pin  feather. 

Old  Scotch. 


Old  books,  old  wine,  old  Nankin  blue, 
All  these  I  prize, —  but,  entre  nous, — 
Old  friends  are  best. 

Austin  Dohson, 

These  three  gentle  and  goodly  things  — 
To  be  here,  to  be  together. 
And  to  think  well  of  one  another. 

Unidentified. 

Hear  no  Evil.     See  no  Evil.     Speak  no  Evil. 
'~^  ~  Unidentified, 

A  word  fitly  spoken  is  like  apples  of  gold  In  pic- 
tures of  silver. 

Proverbs  xxv:  11. 

Sweet  discourse  makes  short  days  and  nights. 

Old  English. 

A  man's  tongue  is  a  shield,  not  a  sword. 

Old  German. 

There's  so  much  good  in  the  worst  of  us. 
There's  so  much  bad  in  the  best  of  us. 
That  it  ill  behooves  any  one  of  us 
To  speak  any  harm  of  the  rest  of  us. 

Unidentified. 


OFHOMEASHOME  61 

Seeke  out  ye  good  in  every  man 
And  speake  of  all  the  best  ye  can ; 

Then  will  all  men  speake  well  of  thee, 
And  say  how  kinde  of  hart  ye  bee. 

Adolphus  'Goss, 

A  beautiful  behaviour  is  better  than  a  beautiful 
form ;  it  is  the  finest  of  the  fine  arts. 

Emerson. 

An  air  is  more  lasting  than  the  voice  of  the  birds, 
A  word  is  more  lasting  than  the  riches  of  the  world. 
Irish  proverb,  in  Introduction  "  The  Poem 
-  Book  of  the  Gael,"  Eleanor  Hull. 

Sixteenth-century  inscription  used  in  an  old  house  in 
Edinburgh : 

Ut  Tu  Linguae  Tuae,  Sic  Ego  Mearum  Aureum 

Dominus  Sum. 
(As  thou  of  thy  tongue,   so   I   of  my  ears,   ara 
Lord.) 
See  Chambers'  "  Traditions  of  Edinburgh.** 

Sense  is  our  helmet,  wit  is  but  the  plume. 
The  plume  exposes,  'tis  our  helmet  saves. 

Young. 

Politeness  is  to  do  and  say 

The  kindest  thing  in  the  kindest  way. 

He  that  would  live  in  peace  and  rest, 
Must  hear,  and  see,  and  say,  the  Best. 

Old  English. 


62  HEARTH   AND    GARTH 

A  little  nonsense  now  and  then 
Is  relished  by  the  best  of  men. 

Talk  often,  but  not  long. 

Bishop  Home, 

'Tis  his  at  last  who  says  it  best. 

Loivell. 

It  takes  two  to  tell  the  truth, —  one  to  speak,  and 
another  to  hear. 

Thoreau. 

A.  Friend  is  some  one  who  can  finish  your  sen- 
tences for  you. 

Be  willing  to  be  pleased  and  the  power  will  come. 

"  Essays"  Leigh  Hunt. 

Kind  hearts  are  more  than  coronets. 

Laugh,  and  the  world  laughs  with  you. 

A  merry  heart  maketh  a  cheerful  countenance. 

The  lyf  so  short,  the  craft  so  long  to  lerne. 

Life  without  labor  is  guilt,  labor  without  art  is 
brutality. 

RusJcm. 


OFHOMEASHOME  63 

Motto  used  in  a  frieze  of  mottoes  on  the  studio  walls 
by  Mr.  Warrington  Wood,  Villa  Campani,  Rome; 

Ars  longa,  vita  brevis. 
(Art  is  long,  life  is  brief.) 
Then  have  no  care  that  life  is  brief,  and  less  that 

art  is  long; 
Success  is  in  the  silences,  though  fame  be  in  the 
song. 

Unidentified. 

You  cannot  civilize  men,  until  you  give  them  a 
share  in  art. 

William  Morris. 

All  passes!     Art  alone 
Enduring,  stays  to  us. 
From  "  Ars  Victrix,"  Austin  Dobson. 

In  omnia  paratus. 
(Prepared  for  everything.) 

Motto  used  by  the  Earl  of  Pomf ret : 
Hora  est  semper. 
(It  is  always  the  time.) 

Never  despair,  but  if  you  do  work  on  in  despair. 

Edmund  Burke. 

There  is  no  better  ballast  for  keeping  the  mind 
steady  on  its  keel  than  business. 

Lowell. 


64.  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Inscription  over  mantel  in  great  hall,  Ashton: 

If  service  be  thy  meane  to  thrive 

Thou  must  therein  remaine; 
Both  silent,  faithful,  just  and  trve, 

Content  to  take  some  paine ; 
If  love  of  Virtve  may  allvre 

Or  hope  of  worldly  gaine; 
If  fear  of  God  may  thee  procvre 

To  serve  doe  not  disdaine. 

Work  is  of  a  religious  nature ;  —  work  is  of  a 
brave  nature :  which  it  is  the  aim  of  all  religion  to  be. 
All  work  of  man  is  as  the  swimmer's :  a  waste  ocean 
threatens  to  drown  him ;  if  he  front  it  not  hourly,  it 
will  keep  its  word. 

Thomas  Carlyle. 

Labor  est  etiam  ipsa  voluptas. 
(Labor  is  itself  a  pleasure.) 

^^  Lucretius. 

Labor  omnia  vinclt. 
(Labor  conquers  everything.) 

Virgil. 

Motto  of  monks  in  the  Middle  Ages : 
Laborare  est  orare. 
(To  labor  is  to  pray.) 

In  all  labour  there  is  profit, 

But  the  folding  of  the  hands  leadeth  only  to  pen- 
ury. 

Proverbs  of  Solomon. 


OFHOMEASHOME  65 

The  slothful  man  has  said, 
There  is  a  lion  in  the  path. 

Old  English  proverb. 
My  work  is  mine, 

And,  heresy  or  not,  if  my  hand  slacked 
I  should  rob  God. 

"  Stradivarius,"  George  Eliot. 

Who  touches  the  keys  of  endless  activity;  opens 
the  infinite,  and  stands  awestruck  before  the  immen- 
sity of  what  there  is  to  do. 

Phillips  Brooks. 

Never  trouble  another  for  what  you  can  do  your- 
self.^ 

Never  put  off  till  to-morrow  what  you  can  do  to- 
day. 

"  A  Decalogue  of  Canons  " 
Thomas  Jefferson. 

Set  about  what  yooi  intend  to  dot  the  beginning  is 
half  the  battle. 

Ansonius. 

,  .  .  there  is  always  work 
And  tools  to  work  withal,  for  those  who  will ; 
And  blessed  are  the  homy  hands  of  toil. 

"  A  Glance  behind  the  Curtain" 

Lowell. 

To  the  persevering  mortal  the  blessed  Immortals  are 
swift. 

Zoroaster. 


66  HEARTH   AND    GARTH 

Nul  effort  n'est  vain. 

Romam  RollaThd. 

When  the  open  fires  are  lit,  in  the  evening,  after 

tea, 
Then  I  like  to  come  and  sit,  where  the  fire  can 

talk  to  me. 

T.  D.  Sherman, 

How  am  I  to  sing  your  praise, 
Happy  chimney-corner  days ; 
Sitting  safe  in  nursery-nooks, 
Reading  picture-books? 

*'  Picture  Books  in  Winter,** 
R.  L.  Stevenson, 

Father,  whom  I  cannot  see, 
Look  down  from  heaven  on  little  me ; 
Let  angels  through  the  darkness  spread 
Their  holy  wings  above  my  bed ; 
And  keep  me  safe,  because  I  am 
The  heavenly  Shepherd's  little  lamb ; 
Teach  me  to  do  as  I  am  told, 
And  help  me  be  as  good  as  gold. 

"  Child's  Prayer"  by  William  Canton, 

Ever  against  eating  cares. 
Lap  me  in  soft  Lydian  airs. 

Milton. 


OFHOMEASHOME  67 

Music  washes  away  from  the  soul  the  dust  of  every- 
day life. 

Auerbach. 

In  sweet  music  is  such  art, 
Killing  caie  and  grief  of  heart 
Fall  asleep,  or  hearing  die. 

**  Henry  VIII  "  Shakespeare. 

Music,  that  gentlier  on  the  spirit  lies, 
Than  tir'd  eyelids  upon  tir'd  eyes. 

Unidentified. 

Music  that  brings  sweet  sleep  down  from  the  bliss- 
ful skies. 

"  The  Lotos-Eaters,"  Tennyson. 


FOR  THE  DINING-ROOM 

Not  on   the  store  of   sprightly  wine, 

Nor  plenty  of  delicious  meats, 
Though  generous  Nature  did  design 

To  court  us  with  perpetual  treats, — 
'Tis  not  on  these  we  for  content  depend. 
So  much  as  on  the  shadow  of  a  Friend. 

Menander. 

We  may  live  without  poetry,  music  and  art ; 

We  may  live  without  conscience,  and  live  with- 
out heart ; 

We  may  live  without  friends,  we  may  live  with- 
out books. 

But  civilized  man  cannot  live  without  cooks. 

We  may  live  without  books  —  what  is  knowledge 
but  grieving? 

We  may  live  without  hope  —  what  is  hope  but  de- 
ceiving? 

We  may  live  without  love  —  what  Is  passion  but 
pining? 

But  where  is  the  man  who  can  live  without  dining? 

Owen  Meredith. 

Go  to  your  banquet  then,  but  use  delight 
So  as  to  rise  still  with  an  appetite. 

Robert  Herrick, 
68 


FOR    THE    DINING-ROOM       69 

Conversation  is  but  carving, 
Give  no  more  to  every  guest, 
Than  he's  able  to  digest. 
Give  him  always  of  the  prime 
And  but  little  at  a  time. 
Give  to  all  but  just  enough, 
Let  them  neither  starve  nor  stuff, 
And  that  each  may  have  his  due. 
Let  your  neighbor  carve  for  you. 

Unidentified. 

Give  him  a  sugar-plum  if  he  is  good. 

"  Shirlei/,^'  Charlotte  Bronte. 

Eat  at  your  table  as  you  would  eat  at  the  table 
of  the  King. 

Confucius. 

Take  the  goods  the  gods  provide  thee. 

"  Alexander's  Feast"  Dryden. 

God  will  send  more  if  the  man  will  be  thankful. 
"  As  You  Like  It"  Shakespeare. 

Better  is  halfe  a  lofe  than  no  bread. 

Proverhes,  Thomas  Heywood. 

Enough  is  as  good  as  a  sackful. 

German  proverb. 

All  is  fish  that  com'th  to  net. 

Proverhes,  Thomas  Heywood. 


70  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

It's  folly  to  live  puir  and  dee  rich. 

Old  Scotch* 

It  is  not  nice  for  a  man  to  pray  cream  and  live 
skim  milk. 

Old  English. 

Good  to  be  merrie  and  wise. 

Proverbes,  Thomas  Heywood. 

Salt  yo  food  wi'  humour,  season  it  with  wit,  and 
sprinkle  it  o'er  with  the  charm  of  good  fellowship. 

UnidenUf.ed. 

His  table  dormant  in  his  halle  alway, 
Stood  redy  covered  all  the  longe  day. 

Chaucer,  of  his  Fraiikelyn. 

Come  thou  home  with  me  and  eat  bread. 

Use  the  means  and  God  will  give  the  blessing. 

Old  English. 

Spare  your  breath  to  cool  your  broth. 

'*  Cervantes"  Don  Quixote. 

Rule  the  appetite  and  temper  the  tongue. 

Old  English. 

For  a  good  dinner,  and  a  gentle  wife,  you  can  af- 
ford to  wait. 

Old  Danish  proverb. 


FOR    THE    DINING-ROOM        71 

He  that  banquets  every  day,  never  makes  a  good 
meal. 

Unidentified. 

Hunger  is  the  best  sauce. 

He  who  eats  with  most  pleasure  is  he  who  least  re- 
quires sauce. 

Xenophon. 

The  chief  pleasure  in  eating  does  not  consist  in 
costly  seasoning  or  exquisite  flavour,  but  in  yourself. 

Horace, 

We  cultivate  literature  on  a  little  oatmeal. 

*'  Memoirs,"  Sydney  Smith. 

Small  cheer  and  great  welcome  makes  a  merry  feast. 
"  Comedy  of  Errors"  Shakespeare. 

With  a  few  foods,  and  a  few  dishes  dine, 
And  much  of  mirth  and  moderate  wine. 

"  Liberty"  Abraham  Cotdey. 

Better  a  dry  morsel  and  quietness  therewith,  than 
a  house  full  of  sacrifices  with  strife. 

Proverbs  xvii,  1. 

Better   a  dinner   of   herbs   where  love   is,   than   a 
stalled  ox  and  hatred  therewith. 

Proverbs  xv,  17. 


72  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

We  never  repent  of  having  eaten  too  little. 

"  A  Decalogue  of  Canons  for  Observation 
m  Practical  Life"  Thomas  Jefferson. 

Stay  me  with  flagons, 
Comfort  me  with  apples. 

Song  of  Songs. 

'Tis  mirth,  not  dishes,  sets  a  table  off; 
Brutes  and  Phanaticks  eat,  and  never  laugh. 
Old  Song  called  "  A  Poem  hy  a  Per^ 
son  of  Quality.''*     Date,  1694' 

Welcome  is  the  best  cheer. 

Old  English. 

The  company  makes  the  feast. 

Ibid. 
Not  Bread,  nor  Meat,  nor  Wine, 
But  Fire  on  Hearth  and  Cheer  in  Grateful  Hearts, 
Make  Home  Divine. 

Donald  G.  Mitchell. 

Wouldst  thou  both  eat  thy  cake  and  liave  it? 

George  Herbert. 

Animals  feed :  man  eats ;  the  man  of  intellect  alone 
knows  how  to  eat. 

Brillat-Savarin. 


FOR    THE    DINING-ROOM        73 

Winds  whistle  shrill, 
Icy  and  chill, 
Little  care  we; 
Little  we  fear 
Weather  without, 
Sheltered  about 
The  mahogany  tree. 

"  The  Mahogany  Tree,*" 
William  Makepeace  Thackeray. 

What  moistens  the  lips,  and 
What  brightens  the  eye? 
What  calls  back  the  past 
Like  the  rich  pumpkin  pie? 

Unidentified. 

The  Receipts  of  Cookery  are  swell'd  to  a  Volume, 
but  a  good  stomach  excels  them  all ;  to  which  noth- 
ing contributes  more  than  Industry  and  Temper- 
ance. 

"  Some  Fruits  of  Solitude,'* 
William  Penn. 

Many  a  man  has  got  to  heaven  because  his  wife 
was  a  good  cook. 

Unidentified. 

May  ye  be  just  as  happy  yoursel' 
As  ye  like  to  see  anybody  else. 

Buriis. 


74  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

I  am  convinced  digestion  is  the  great  secret  of  life ; 
and  that  character,  talents,  virtues,  and  qualities 
are  powerfully  affected  by  beef,  mutton,  pie-crust, 
and  rich  soups.  I  have  often  thought  I  could  feed 
or  starve  men  into  many  virtues  and  vices,  and  affect 
them  more  powerfully  with  my  instruments  of  cook- 
ery than  Timotheus  could  do  formerly  with  his  lyre. 
"  Letters,''  Sydney  Smith. 

All  sorrows  are  bearable  if  there  is  bread. 

Sancho  Panza's  Proverbs. 

Bread  is  the  staff  of  life. 

"  Tale  of  a  Tub,''  Jonathan  Swift, 

"  I  wish  you  joy,  with  best  of  health. 
Content  that's  better  far  than  wealth, 
A  laugh  so  open,  free,  and  fair 
'Twill  make  a  sunshine  everywhere." 

Unidentified, 

Blessed  be  simple  life,  withouten  dreid ; 

Blessed  be  sober  feast  in  quietie ; 
Who  has  enough,  of  no  more  has  he  need, 

Though  it  be  little  into  quantitie. 
Great  abundance  and  blind  prosperitie, 

Ofttimes  mak  an  ill  conclusion ; 
The  sweetest  life,  therefore,  in  this  countrie, 

Is  to  live  safe,  with  small  possession. 

Content,  from  "  The  Tale  of  the  Upland 

and  the  Burgess  Mouse,"  Robert  Henryson, 


FOR    THE    DINING-ROOM        75 

Some  have  too  much,  yet  still  they  crave ; 

I  little  have,  yet  seek  no  more. 
They  are  but  poor,  though  much  they  have ; 

And  I  am  rich  with  little  store. 
They  poor,  I  rich ;  they  beg,  I  give ; 
They  lack,  I  lend ;  they  pine,  I  live. 

William  Byrd. 

But  tho'  my  cates  be  mean,  take  them  in  good  part; 
Better  cheer  you  may  have,  but  not  with  better  heart. 

Shakespeare. 

Carved  in  Gothic  lettering  in  dining-room,  Haddon 
Hall,  placed  by  Sir  George  Vernon,  c.  1540. 
Drede  God  and  Honour  the  King. 

Now  good  digestion  wait  on  appetite, 
And  health  on  both. 

"  Macbeth"  Hi,  ^,  Shakespeare. 

I  have  never  seen  anything  in  the  world  worth 
getting  angry  about. 

Henry  T.  Raymond. 

Give  me  an  honest  laugher. 

Sir  Walter  Scott. 

Wishers  and  woulders  are  puir  house  houlders. 

Old  Scotch. 

Weel  kens  the  mouse  whan  pussie's  in. 

Scotch. 


76  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Most  pessimism  is  the  result  of  indigestion, 

Hugh  Black. 

The  proof  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating. 

Don  Quixote. 

A  favorite  eighteenth-century  toast: 

Here's  a  health  to  all  those  that  I  love, 
And  a  health  to  all  those  that  love  me, 
A  health  to  all  those  that  love  those  that  I  love, 
And  to  all  those  that  love  those  that  love  me. 


FOR  THE  BEDROOM 

God  bless  this  house  from  thatch  to  floor, 
The  twelve  apostles  guard  the  door, 
And  four  good  angels  watch  my  bed. 
Two  at  the  foot  and  two  at  the  head. 

Old  English. 

He  hath  placed  at  every  man's  side  a  Guardian, 
the  genius  of  each  man,  who  is  charged  to  watch  over 
him ;  a  genius  that  cannot  sleep,  nor  be  deceived. 

Epictetus. 

We  are  such  stuff  as  dreams  are  made  on,  and  our 

little  life 
Is  rounded  with  a  sleep. 

"  The  Tempest,"  iv,  1,  Shakespeare. 

Oh  sleep,  it  is  a  gentle  thing. 
Beloved  from  pole  to  pole. 

Sarmiel  Taylor  Coleridge. 

Come,  sleep,  oh,  sleep,  the  certain  knot  of  peace. 

Sir  Philip  Sidney. 

Come,  blessed  barrier  betwixt  day  and  day. 
Dear  mother  of  fresh  thoughts  and  joyous  health. 

Wordsworth. 
77 


78  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Tired  Nature's  sweet  restorer,  balmy  sleep. 

"  Night  Thoughts  "  Edward  Young, 

In  portu  quies. 
(In  Harbor  Peace.) 

With  this  field-dew  consecrate, 
Every  fairy  take  his  gait; 
And  each  several  chamber  bless, 
Through  this  palace,  with  sweet  peace. 

"  A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream," 
Shakespeare. 

Happy  is  the  house  that  shelters  a  friend. 

Old  English. 

To  each,  to  all,  a  fair  good-night. 
And  pleasing  dreams,  and  slumbers  light. 
"  Marmion"  canto  vii,  Sir  Walter  Scott. 

Lodge  thou  here  that  thy  heart  may  be  merry. 

Judges  xix,  9. 

Sleep  dwell  upon  thine  eyes,  peace  in  thy  breast. 
Juliet  to  Romeo,  Shakespeare. 

All  they  that  spent  their  days  in  grace 
Have  left  a  blessing  on  this  place, 
Then  gentle  be  the  speech  that  falls, 
Lest  ye  offend  these  placid  walls. 

The  Best  Room,  in  "  Maxims  for  an  Old 
House,"  Anma  Hempstead  Branch. 


FOR    THE    BEDROOM  79 

A   clear   conscience   is   a   soft   pillow. 

Anonymous. 

Thou  shalt  rest  sweetly  if  thy  heart  do  not  reprehend 
thee. 

Meditations,  Thomas  a  Kempis, 

.  .  .  sweet  pillows,  sweetest  bed; 
A  chamber  deaf  to  noise,  and  blind  to  light ; 
A  rosy  garland,  and  a  weary  head. 

Sonnets,  Sir  Philip  Sidney. 

Bed,  O  bed !  delicious  bed. 

That  heaven  upon  earth  to  the  weary  head. 

'*  Her  Dream,"  Thomas  Hood. 

And  the  calm  pleasures  always  hover'd  nigh; 
But  what  e'er  smack'd  of  'noyance  or  unrest 
Was  far,  far  off  expell'd  from  this  delicious  nest. 
"  The  Castle  of  Indolence,^'  James  Thomson. 

Sleep  that  knits  up  the  ravell'd  sleave  of  care, 
The  death  of  each  day's  life,  sore  labor's  bath. 
Balm  of  hurt  minds,  great  nature's  second  course, 
Chief  nourisher  in  life's  feast. 

0  sleep,  O  gentle  sleep, 

Nature's  soft  nurse,  how  have  I  frighted  thee, 
That  thou  no  more  will  weigh  my  eyelids  down 
And  steep  my  senses  in  forgetfulness? 

"  Macbeth,"  Shakespeare. 


80  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Fatigue  itself  may  be  a  pleasant  thing, 
And  weariness  be  silken,  soft,  and  fine. 

Anna  Hempstead  Branch. 

Blessings  on  him  that  first  invented  sleep. 
It  wraps  a  man  all  round  like  a  cloak. 

Sancho  Panza. 

Inscription  in  the  hall  panelling  of  Speke  Hall,  cred- 
ited with  having  been  transferred  to  its  present 
position  from  Holyrood  Palace,  after  the  Battle 
of  Flodden  Field.     *S'.  F.  A.  CaulfeUd. 

SLEPE  .  NOT  .  TEIIi  .  YE  .  HATHE  .  CONSID- 
ERED .  HOW  .  THOW  .  HATHE  .  SPENT  .  YE 
DAY  .  PAST  .  IF  .  THOW  .  HAVE  .  WELL  .  DON 
THANK  .  GOD  .  IF  .  OTHEEWAYS  .  EEPENT  .  YE 

Every  day  is  a  fresh  beginning. 

Listen,  my  soul,  to  the  glad  refrain, 

And  spite  of  old  sorrow,  and  older  sinning. 
And  puzzles  forecasted,  and  possible  pain, 

Take  heart  with  the  day,  and  begin  again. 

Susan  Coolidge. 

He  sleeps  well  who  knows  not  that  he  sleeps  ill. 
"  Maxims,"  Publius  Syrus. 

To  Mary  Queen  the  praise  be  given. 
She  sent  the  gentle  sleep  from  Heav'n 
That  slid  into  my  soul. 

Coleridge, 


FOR    THE    BEDROOM  81 

A  Life  without  a  purpose  is  a  languid,  drifting 
thing;  every  day  we  ought  to  renew  our  purpose, 
saying  to  ourselves:     This  day  let  us  make  a  sound 
beginning,  for  what  we  have  hitherto  done  is  naught. 
Thomas  a  Kempis,  translated  by 
Matthew  Arnold, 


FOR  THE  MUSIC-ROOM 

Dear  friend,  whom  glad  or  grave  we  seek, 
Heaven-holding  shrine,  I  ope  thee,  touch  thee,  hear 

thee  speak. 
And  joy  Is  mine. 

Leigh  Hunt. 

He  who  hath  an  art 
Hath  everywhere  a  part. 

Italian  saying. 

Practice  is  the  best  of  all  instructors. 

"  Maxims,"  Publius  Syrus, 

Musick,  soft  charm  of  heav'n  and  earth. 
Ode  "  In  Praise  of  Musick  "  Edmund  Smith. 

O  Music  !  sphere-descended  maid. 
Friend  of  Pleasure,  Wisdom's  aid. 

"  The  Passions  "  William  Collins. 

Inscription  on  music-room  mantelpiece  at  Apthorpe, 

England. 
Rare  and  ever  to  be  wisht  maye  sownde  heere 
Instruments  w^^  fainte  sprites  and  muses  cheere, 
Composing  for  the  Body,  Sowle,  and  Eare, 

Which  Sickness,  Sadness,  and  Fowle  Spirits  feare. 

82 


FOR  A  TEA  TABLE 

Why  not  consecrate  ourselves  to  the  queen  of  the 
Camellias,  and  revel  in  the  warm  stream  of  sympathy 
that  flows  from  her  altar  ?  In  the  liquid  amber  with- 
in the  ivory-porcelain,  the  initiated  may  touch  the 
sweet  reticence  of  Confucius,  the  piquancy  of  Laotse, 
and  the  ethereal  aroma  of  Saky-amuni  himself. 

"  The  Booh  of  Tea"  Okakura-Kahuzo. 

Three  deplorable  things :  "  The  spoiling  of  fine 
youths  through  false  education,  the  degradation  of 
fine  paintings  through  vulgar  admiration,  and  the 
utter  waste  of  fine  tea  through  incompetent  manipu- 
lation. 

Ihid. 

There  are  three  stages  of  boUing:  The  first  boil  is 
when  the  little  bubbles  like  the  eye  of  fishes  swim  on 
the  surface;  the  second  boil  is  when  the  bubbles  are 
like  crystal  beads  rolling  in  a  fountain ;  the  third  boil 
is  when  the  billows  surge  wildly  in  the  kettle. 

Ihid. 

The  tea-room  is  made  for  the  tea-master,  not  the 
tea-master  for  the  tea-room. 

Ihid. 
83 


84  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Strangely  enough  humanity  has  so  far  met  in  the 
tea-cup.  It  is  the  only  Asiatic  ceremonial  which 
commands  universal  esteem.  The  white  man  has 
scoffed  at  our  religion  and  our  morals,  but  has  ac- 
cepted the  brown  beverage  without  hesitation. 

"  The  Book  of  Tea,"  Okakura-Kakuzo. 

On  a  piece  of  Devonshire  pottery : 

He  soars  not  high  who  fears  to  fall. 

Text  on  a  piece  of  Devonshire  pottery: 

Never  say  die,  man,  up  and  try. 


FOR  LITTLE  HOMELY  THINGS 

A  very  Little  Thing  is  a  very  little  thing, 
But  Faithfulness  in  Little  Things  is  a  very  Great 
Thing. 

Pythagoras. 
To  know 
That  which  before  us  lies  in  daily  life, 
Is  the  prime  wisdom. 

Milton. 

All  hail,  ye  small,  sweet  courtesies  of  life;  how 
much  smoother  do  ye  make  the  road  of  it. 

Horace  Walpole. 

Inscribed  (together  with  the  Prince  of  Wales'  feath- 
ers) on  brass  handles  of  an  old  mahogany  side- 
board in  Albany,  N.  Y. : 

Ich  dien. 

Put  not  your  trust  in  money,  but  put  your  money 
in  trust. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

If  thou  be  rich,  strive  to  command  thy  money,  lest 

it  command  thee. 

QuarUs. 
85 


86  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Wealth  is  not  his  that  has  it  but  his  that  enjoys  it. 

Old  English. 

Poverty  is  in  want  of  much,  but  avarice  of  every- 
thing. 

"  MoxIths,"  Publius  Syrus. 

'Ask  thy  purse  what  thou  shouldst  buy. 

Scotch  Proverb, 

Money  —  may  it  ever  be  our  friend  —  never  our 
tyrant. 

Unidentified, 

Epitaph  on  the  Good  Earl  of  Devon: 

What  we  gave  we  have ;  what  we  spent  we  had ;  what 
we  left  we  lost. 

Be  not  penny-wise:  riches  have  wings,  and  some- 
times they  fly  away  of  themselves:  sometimes  they 
must  be  sent  flying  to  bring  in  more. 

"  Of  Riches  ";  Francis  Bacon. 

On  a  looking-glass: 

I  change,  and  so  do  women  too ; 

But  I  reflect,  which  women  never  do. 

Unidentified. 

Strike  while  the  iron's  hot. 

Rabelais, 


LITTLE    HOMELY    THINGS      87 

Who  sweeps  a  room  as  for  thy  laws 
Makes  that  and  th'  action  fine. 

"  The  Elixir"  George  Herbert. 

By  the  work  one  knows  the  workman. 

"  The  Hornets  and  the  Bees,** 
Jean  de  la  Fontame. 

To  the  discontented  man  no  chair  is  easy. 

Benjamin  Franklin. 

Weave  in  faith  and  God  will  find  thread. 

Proverb. 

Inscription  on  an  old  English  silver  cup: 

The  Greatest  Treasur  that  one  yearth  to  mortal 
man  is  modyrat  welth  to  norish  lyfe  if  man  can  be 
content. 

A  stitch  in  time  saves  nine. 

The  web  of  our  life  is  of  mingled  yarn,  good  and  ill 
together. 

"  AlVs  Well  that  Ends  Well,"  iv,  3, 
Shakespeare. 

To  hold  as  'twere  the  mirror  up  to  nature. 

"  Hamlet,"  Shakespeare. 

For  in  and  out,  above,  about,  below, 
'Tis  nothing  but  a  magic  shadow-show. 

Unidentified. 


88  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Sure  the  shovel  and  tongs, 
To  each  other  belongs. 

Samuel  Lover. 
Posy  on  a  thimble: 

He  that  sent  me,  loveth  thee. 

Love's  Garland. 

Motto  used  by  Queens  Elizabeth  and  Anne: 
Semper  eadem 
(Always  the  same.) 

Labor  omnia  vincit  improbus. 
(Incessant  pains  the  end  obtains.) 

Translation  of  Thomas  Ellwood. 

For  a  web  begun  God  sends  the  thread. 
A  silver  hammer  will  break  an  iron  door. 

One  of  Sancho  Panza's  proverbs: 

Praying  to  God  and  hammering  away. 

He  will  do  what  he  will. 
That  will  do  what  he  can. 

Old  Scotch  saying. 

He  that  wold  not  when  he  might, 

He  shall  not  when  he  wolda. 

"  The  Baffled  Knight,"  Percy's  Reliques. 


LITTLE    HOMELY    THINGS      89 

Cosa  ben  fatta, 
E  fatta  due  volte. 
(A  thing  well  done, 
Js  a  thing  twice  done.) 

O  wad  some  power  the  giftie  gie  us, 
To  see  oursels  as  ithers  see  us. 

Bums. 

Used  in  the  decoration  of  a  washstand  by  William 
Burges : 

This  is  the  mirrour  perillus. 
On  which  the  proude  Narcissus 
Sey  all  his  faire  face  brighte. 

From  Chaucer. 


FOR  CANDLES 

How  far  that  little  candle  throws  its  beams, 
So  shines  a  good  deed  in  a  naughty  world. 

"  Merchant  of  Venice,"  Shakespeare. 

Used  over  the  figure  of  Art  in  the  Congressional  Li- 
brary, Washington: 

As  one  lamp  lights  another,  nor  grows  less, 
So  nobleness  enkindleth  nobleness. 

Lowell. 

Hope,  like  the  glimmering  taper's  light, 

Adorns  and  cheers  the  way ; 
And  still,  as  darker  grows  the  night, 

Emits  a  brighter  ray. 

Oliver  Goldsmith. 

Hail,  candle-light,  without  disparagement  to  sun 
or  moon,  the  kindliest  luminary  of  the  three. 

"  Essays  of  Elia,"  Charles  LaTrib. 


90 


FOR  A  STAIRWAY 

Look  up  and  not  down, 
Look  forward  and  not  back, 
Look  out  and  not  in, 
And  lend  a  hand. 

Per  gradus, 
(Step  by  step.) 

Peu  a  peu. 
(By  degrees.) 


91 


FOR  TIME-PIECES 

To  everything  there  is  a  season,  and  a  time  for 
every  purpose  under  the  heaven. 

Ecclesiastes  Hi,  1. 

On  clock,  Town-hall  in  Bala,  North  Wales : 

Here  I  stand  both  day  and  night 
To  tell  the  hours  with  all  my  might; 
Do  thou  example  take  by  me, 
And  serve  thy  God  as  I  serve  thee. 

Used  In  a  corridor.  Library  of  Congress,  Washing- 
ton: 

Man  raises,  but  Time  weighs. 

^^  Greek. 

Under  the  clock  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville  at  Neuilly, 
France : 

Ma  voix  resonne,  ecoute. 

Elle  dit  qu'il  est  I'heure  de  bien  faire. 

(My  voice  resounds,  list. 

Saying  'tis  the  hour  to  do  some  good.) 

Fronte  Capillata,  post  est  occasio  calva. 
(Opportunity  has  locks  in  front,  but  is  bald  behind.) 

DionysiuSy  Cato. 
99 


FOR    TIME-PIECES  93 

Time  is  painted  with  a  lock  before,  and  bald  be- 
hind, signifying  thereby  that  we  must  take  time  by 
the  forelock,  for  when  it  is  once  past,  there  is  no 
recalling  it. 

Dean  Swift. 

Nae  man  can  tether  time  or  tide. 

Bums. 
Inscription  for  a  Time-piece: 

Now  It  is  gone. —  Our  brief  hours  travel  post. 
Each  with  its  thought  or  deed,  its  Why  or  How : — 
But  know,  each  parting  hour  gives  up  a  ghost 
To  dwell  within  thee  —  an  Eternal  Now. 

Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge. 


FOR  CUPBOARDS 

Order  is  heaven's  first  law. 

Alexander  Pope. 

A  place  for  everything  and  everything  in  its  place. 

Order  is  the  sanity  of  the  mind,  the  health  of  the 
body,  the  peace  of  the  city,  the  security  of  the  State. 

As  the  beams  to  a  house,  and  the  bones  to  the  mi- 
crocosm of  man,  so  is  order  to  all  things. 

Robert  Southey. 

Have  nothing  which  you  do  not  know  to  be  useful, 
or  which  you  do  not  believe  to  be  beautiful. 

William  Morris. 

Keep  a  thing  seven  years  and  ye'll  find  a  use  for't. 

Old  English  proverb. 


94 


FOR  THE  GARDEN  GATEWAY 

Inscription  over  one  of  the  gateways  in  the  ancient 
wall  at  Rothenburg,  Germany: 

Peace  to  those  who  enter, 
Godspeed  to  those  who  go  forth. 

Of  the  Gates  of  Busyrane : 

Be  bold,  First  Gate, 

Be  bold,  and  evermore  be  bold,  Second  Gate, 

Be  not  too  bold,  Third  Gate. 

From  coat  of  arras.  City  of  London: 
Domine,  dirige  Nos. 
(Lord,  direct  thou  us.) 

Inscription  on  garden  gate,  Montacute  House,  Eng- 
land: 

Through  this  wide  opening  gate. 

None  come  too  early,  none  return  too  late. 

I  have  prepared  for  thee  twelve  trees  laden  with 
divers  fruits,  and  as  many  fountains  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey,  and  seven  mighty  mountains  where- 
upon grow  roses  and  lilies  whereby  I  will  fill  thy  chil- 
dren with  joy. 

Esdras  II,  ii. 
95 


96  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Pan  leaps  and  pipes  all  summer  long. 

The  fairies  dance  each  full-mooned  night. 
Would  we  but  doff  our  lenses  strong, 

And  trust  our  wiser  eyes  delight. 

"  The  Foot-path,"  Lowell 

Come  forth  into  the  light  of  things, 
Let  Nature  be  your  teacher. 

Wordsworth. 


FOR  GARDEN  SEAT  OR  GAZEBO 

Nature  never  did  betray, 
The  heart  that  loved  her ;  'tis  her  privilege 
Through  all  the  scenes  of  this  our  life  to  lead 

From  joy  to  joy. 

Wordsworth. 

Tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks, 
Sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  everything. 

"As  You  Like  It"  Shakespeare. 

The  greatest  step  is  that  out  of  doors. 

German  proverb. 

Nature  is  the  Art  of  God. 

Sir  Thomas  Browne. 

The  greatest  advantages  men  have  by  riches  are, 
to  give,  to  build,  to  plant  and  make  pleasant  scenes. 

Sir  William  Temple. 

As  the  wild-rose  bloweth 
As  runs  the  happy  river. 
Kindness  freely  floweth 
In  the  heart  forever. 

Gerald  Massey. 
97 


98  HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Mio  picciol  orto, 
A  me  sei  vigna,  e  campo,  e  selva,  e  prato. 

(My  little  garden, 
To  me  thou'rt  vineyard,  field,  and  wood,  and  meadow.) 
Bardi,  translation  of  Leigh  Hunt. 

And  better  must  all  childhood  be 
That  knows  a  garden  and  a  tree. 

Bourdillon, 

Oh  for  a  seat  in  some  poetic  nook 
Just  hid  with  trees,  and  sparkling  with  a  brook. 
Politics  and  Poetics,  Leigh  Hunt. 

Japanese  ideal  of  a  garden  path,  according  to  the 
famous  tea-master  Enshiu: 

A  cluster  of  summer  trees, 
A  bit  of  the  sea, 
A  pale  evening  moon. 
"  The  Book  of  Tea"  Okakura-Kakuzo. 

And  all  without  were  walkes  and  alleys  dight 
With  divers  trees  enrang'd  in  even  rankes ; 
And  here  and  there  were  pleasant  arbors  pight 
And  shadie  seats,  and  sundry  flowering  bankes 
To  sit  and  rest  the  walkers  wearie  shankes. 

"  Faerie  Queene,"  Spenser. 

Let  us  a  little  permit  Nature  her  own  way ;  she 
better  understands  her  own  affairs  than  we. 

"  Essays  "  Montaigne. 


GARDEN  SEAT  OR  GAZEBO   99 

Annihilating  all  that's  made 

To  a  green  thought  in  a  green  shade. 

Andrew  Marvell. 


Sow  thou  sorrow  and  thou  shalt  reap  it; 
Sow  thou  joy  and  thou  shalt  keep  it. 

Richard  Watson  Gilder. 

Tranquillity  and  peace  in  this  still  place, 

No  more  of  movement  than  white  birds  that  stand 

Leg  deep  in  water,  silent  as  the  land. 

Oh !  cool  green  garden,  give  me  of  thy  grace. 

Unidentified. 

The  faery  beam  upon  you! 
The  stars  to  glister  on  you ! 

A  moon  of  light 

In  the  noon  of  night 
Till  the  fire-drake  hath  o'ergone  you ! 
The  wheel  of  Fortune  guide  you ! 
The  Boy  with  the  bow  beside  you 

Run  aye  in  the  way 

Till  the  bird  of  day 
And  the  luckier  lot  betide  you ! 

"  Gypsy  Songs"  Ben  Jonson. 

Work  apace,  apace,  apace; 
Honest  labour  bears  a  lovely  face ; 
Hen  hey  nonny,  nonny,  hey  nonny,  nonny. 

From  "  Content,"  Thomas  Dekker. 


100         HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

You  have  nothing  here  but  Sweet  Herbs,  and  those 
only  choice  ones  too,  and  every  kind,  its  beds  by  itself. 

Erasmus. 

O  for  a  Booke  and  a  shadie  nooke, 

Eyther  in-a-doore  or  out ; 
With  the  grene  leaves  whisp'ring  overhede, 

Of  the  streete  cryes  all  about. 
Where  I  maie  Reade  all  at  mine  ease, 

Both  of  the  Newe  and  Olde. 

Old  English  Song. 

Flie  fro  the  presse  and  dwell  with  sothfastnesse, 

Chaucer. 

.  .  .  and  in  the  comers  set 
An  arbour  grene  with  wandis  long  and  small 

Railed  about,  and  so  with  leves  beset 
Was  all  the  place  and  hawthorn  hedges  knet 

That  lyf  was  none,  walkyng  there  forbye 

That  might  within  scarce  any  wight  espye. 
King  James  of  Scotland  and  England. 

Fair  are  the  laurels,  fair  the  stream 

Which  bubbles  forth  beneath  the  trees, 
And  through  the  leaves  no  wandering  beam 

Of  sunlight  heats  the  western  breeze. 
No  toil,  no  thirst,  no  heat  shall  jade 

The  traveller  who  seeks  my  shade. 

"  The  Resting-Place,**  Marcus  Argentartus. 


GARDEN    SEAT    OR    GAZEBO      101 


Who  listens  well  hears  Nature  on  her  round, 

When  least  she  thinks  it,  bird  and  .bough  a  ad  stream 

Not  only,  but  her  silences  profound^  ,     \, 
Surprised  by  nicer  cunning  of  his  dr»iiini. 

"  The  Skilful  Listener,"  John  Vance  Cheney. 

See  how  the  garden,  at  Spring's  magic  touch, 

Brims  over  smiling,  in  its  dimples  flowers ; 
Yet  all  the  gold  was  in  the  winter's  pouch, 

And  hoarded  long  against  these  largesse  hours. 
Verses  hy  the  author  of  "  The  Professor 
and  Other  Poems"  London,  1894- 


FOR  FOUNTAIN  OR  BIRD-POOL 

A  field  of  corn,  a  fountain,  and  a  wood. 
Is  all  the  wealth  by  Nature  understood. 

Paraphrase  of  Horace,  Abraham  Cowley. 

Panel  inscription  in  an  old  Cornish  castle: 

What  thing  is  harder  than  a  rock? 

What  softer  is  than  water  clear? 
Yet  will  the  same,  with  often  drop, 

The  hard  rock  pierce;  which  doth  appear, 
Even  so,  there  nothing  is  so  hard  to  attayne, 

But  may  be  had  with  labour  and  with  payne. 

S.F.  A.  CaulfeUd. 

Inscription   favored  by   Pope   for  his   Twickenham 
villa : 

Nymph  of  the  Grot,  these  sacred  springs  steep, 
And  to  the  murmur  of  these  waters  sleep. 
Ah,  spare  my  slumbers,  gently  tread  the  cave! 
And  drink  in  silence,  or  in  silence  lave. 

The  lightsome  fountain  starts  from  out  the  green, 

Clear  and  compact ;  till,  at  its  height  o'errun. 

It  shakes  its  loosening  silver  in  the  sun. 

Leigh  Hunt. 
109 


FOUNTAIN    OR    BIRD-POOL      103 

From  "  Inscription  for  a  Fountain  " : 

Rest!     This  little  fountain  runs 
Thus  for  aye:  it  never  stays 

For  the  look  of  summer  suns, 
Nor  the  cold  of  winter  days. 

Procter. 

The  sunshine,  broken  in  the  rill, 
Though  turn'd  away,  is  sunshine  still. 

"  Fire-worshippers  "  Thomas  Moore. 

Fountain-heads  and  pathless  groves, 
Places  which  pale  passion  loves. 

John  Fletcher. 

From  haunted  spring  and  dale, 
Edg'd  with  poplar  pale, 
The  parting  genius  is  with  sighing  sent. 

Milton. 

L'  aqua  diss'  io,  e  il  suon  della  foresta  impugnan 
dentro  a  me  novella  fede. 

(The  water,  quoth  I,  and  the  woodland  murmuring 
drove  in  new  faith  upon  my  soul. ) 

Purgatorio  xxviii,  Dante,  translation  hy 
Ezra  Pound,  in  "  The  Spirit  of  Romance." 


FOR  A  WEATHERVANE 

As  the  bookplate  to  the  volume,  so  the  weather- 
vane  to  the  homestead. 

Unidentified. 
Old  sampler  motto : 

And  be  not  like  the  weathercock 
That  turns  at  everie  winde. 

Except  wind  stands  as  it  never  stood, 
It  is  an  ill  wind  turns  none  to  good. 

"  Good  Husbandry,"*  Thomas  Tusser. 

Some  are  weatherwise,  some  are  other-wise. 

Benjamin  Franklin. 

The  south  wind  brings  wet  weather, 
The  north  wind  wet  and  cold  together ; 
The  west  wind  always  brings  us  rain, 
The  east  wind  blows  it  back  again. 

Anonymous. 

Each  man  is  an  ^olian  harp  at  best. 

And  winds  can  touch  his  nerves  to  horror,  fear, 
Or  woo  him  to  light  thoughts  as  does  the  west. 

He's  but  the  vane  of  the  ever  veering  year. 

"  A  Weathercock,"  author  of  "  The  Professor 

and  other  Poems,"  Bell,  London,  1894. 
104 


FOR    A    WEATHERVANE        105 

When  the  wind  is  in  the  east, 
'Tis  neither  good  for  man  nor  beast ; 
When  the  wind  is  in  the  north, 
The  skilful  fisher  goes  not  forth; 
When  the  wind  is  in  the  south. 
It  blows  the  bait  in  the  fish's  mouth ; 
When  the  wind  is  in  the  west, 
Then  'tis  at  the  very  best. 

Anonymous. 

When  clouds  appear  like  rocks  and  towers, 
The  earth's  refreshed  by  frequent  showers. 

Anonymous. 


FOR  THE  SUNDIAL 

Amidst  ye  floweres  I  tell  ye  houres. 

Unidentified. 

Noiseless  falls  the  foot  of  time, 
Which  only  treads  on  flowers. 

Unidentified. 

Let  the  mind  know  no  twilight. 

Old  Latin. 

Whilst  Phoebus  on  me  shines, 
Then  view  my  Shades  and  Lines. 

On  a  dial  at  Crowborough  Cross,  Sussex : 

I  mark  not  the  hours  unless  they  be  bright, 

I  mark  not  the  hours  of  darkness  and  night. 

My  promise  is  solely  to  follow  the  sun, 

And  point  out  the  course  his  chariot  doth  run. 

Seventeenth  Century  motto  noted  by  Caulfield: 

From  God  all  things  everywhere ; 

To  the  God  of  the  Sun,  of  the  Sky,  and  to  the  Creator 

of  the  Sun,  be  praise. 

Soli:  Deo :  Coeli :  Ac :  Soli :  Creatori :  Laus. 

106 


FOR    THE    SUNDIAL  107 

On  a  wall  dial  of  a  chateau,  Passy : 

Non  numero  Horas  nisi  serenas. 
(I  reckon  none  but  the  serene  hours.) 

Lose  not  thy  confidence  of  making  progress  in 
righteousness ;  there  is  yet  time ;  the  hour  is  not  yet 
past. 

Thomas  a  Kempis. 

Horas  nullus  nisi  aureas. 
(I  count  none  but  the  golden  hours.) 

Motton  on  an  old  Seventeenth  Century  dial  at  Wrest 
Park: 

Foy  est  tout. 

Let  .  others  .  tell  .  of  .  storms  .  and  .  showers, 
I'll  .  Only  .  Count .  Your  .  Sunny  .  Hours. 

SEE   .   THE   .   UTTLE  .  DAY  -  STAR  MOVING 
UFE  .  AND  TIME   .  ARE  WORTH  IMPROVING. 
SEIZE  .  THE  .  MOMENTS  ,  .  WHILE  THEY  .  STAY    ; 

SEIZE  .  AND  .  USE  .  THEM 

LEST  .  YOU  .  LOSE  .  THEM 
AND   .  LAMENT  .  THE  .  WASTED  DAY  . 

BE   .   THANKFUL  .  WATCH  .   PRAY  .  WORK  . 

SHADOW  .  AND  .  SHINE  .  IS  LIFE  . 


108         HEARTH   AND    GARTH 

I  .  MAEK  .  NOT  .  THE  .   HOURS   .   UNLESS  .  THEY  .   BE  . 

BRIGHT  . 
I  .  MARK  .  NOT  .  THE  .  HOURS  .  OF  .  DARKNESS  .  AND  . 

NIGHT, 
MY  .  PROMISE  .  IS  .  SOLELY  .  TO  .   FOLLOW  .  THE  .  SUN, 
AND   .   POINT   .   OUT   .   THE   .   COURSE   .   HIS   .    CHARIOT    . 

DOTH  .   RUN. 

SUNNY   .   BE   .   THE   .   DAY 
SUNNY   .   THY   .   SPIRIT   . 

SHADOW  .  AND  .  SUN SO  .   TOO  .   OUR  .  LIVES  .  ARE  . 

MADE 

YET  .  THINK  .  HOW  .  GREAT  .  THE  .  SUN  ,  .  HOW  .  SMALL 

.    THE   SHADE   . 

MAKE  .  THE  .  PASSING  .  SHADOW  .  SERVE  .  THY  .  WILL. 

TO   .   NO   .   ONE  .  IS   .   GIVEN   .   RIGHT   .   OF  .  DELAY, 

NOTED  .   IN  .   HEAVEN   .   PASSETH   .  EACH   .  DAY    ; 

BE  .  THOU  .  NOT  .   FRUITLESS  ,   .   WORK  .  WHILE  .  YE  ; 

MAY  , 
TRIFLING   .   WERE   .   BOOTLESS   ,    .   WATCH   THOU    .    AND   . 

PRAY  . 

TRUE  .  AS  .  THE  .  DIAL  .  TO  .  THE  .  SUN  : 
ALTHOUGH  .  IT  .  BE  .  NOT  .  SHONE  .  UPON  . 

TIME  .  WASTED  .  IS  .  EXISTENCE  . 
USED   .   IS   .   LIFE  . 


FOR    THE    SUNDIAL  109 

Ut  Unbra  sic  Vita. 
(As  a  shadow  so  is  life.) 

Carpe  Diem. 
(Make  the  best  of  the  day.) 


Horace. 


Tak  tent  o'  tyme 
Ere  tyme  be  tint. 


Noted  in  Yorkshire,  by  S.  F.  A.  Caulfeild : 

Time  is  thou  hast;  see  that  thou  well  employ. 
Time  past  is  gone;  thou  canst  not  that  employ. 
Time  future  is  not ;  and  may  never  be ; 
Time  present  is  the  only  time  for  thee. 

Aspice,  respice,  prospice. 
(Look,  look  backward,  look  forward.) 

Life's  a  short  summer,  man  a  flower; 

He  dies,  alas,  how  soon  he  dies. 
Catch,  then,  O  catch,  the  transient  hour, 

Improve  each  moment  as  it  flies. 

Dr.  Samuel  Johnson. 

Dial  at  Oxford  with  arms  of  Earl  of  Wharton,  prob- 
ably of  seventeenth  century: 

A  Moment  —  mark  how  small  a  space 
The  Dial  shows  upon  the  face ; 
Yet  waste  but  one  —  and  you  shall  see 
Of  how  great  moment  it  can  be. 


110         HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Ab  hoc  momento  pendit  aeternitas. 
(On  this  moment  hangs  eternity.) 

Fill,  conserva  tempus. 
(My  son,  observe  the  opportunity.) 

Dies  Diem  Docet:  Disce. 
(One  Day  telleth  another;  Learn.) 

Dial  In  a  suppressed  monastery  near  Florence: 

My  life  is  in  the  Sun,  God  is  the  life  of  man ; 
Man  without  Him  is  as  I  am  without  the  Sun. 

Defend  not  thyself  of  the  good  day,  and  let  not  the 
part  of  a  good  desire  overpass  thee. 

Ecclesiastes,  xiv,  IJ^. 

Bronze  dial  owned  by  Mr.  H.  J.  Bunner  at  Bryn 
Mawr,  Pa. : 

Time  is  valuable. 

Light  and  Shade  by  turns, 
But  Love  always. 

Old  English, 

On  a  bronze  ring  dial  belonging  to  Alfred  Water- 
house,  Yattenden,  England : 

Like  to  this  Sirkell  round 
No  End  to  Love  Is  found. 


FOR    THE    SUNDIAL  111 

Time  is  the  Chrysalis  of  Eternity. 

Unidentified. 

On    sundial    which    belonged    to    George    Frederick 
Watts : 

The  Utmost  for  the  highest. 

Time  goes  on  day  after  day: 
Suns  and  systems  will  decay; 
But  God's  love  endures  alway. 
From  "  A  Country  Ramble  in  June,'* 
Mary  Howitt. 

Time  can  never  take 

What  Time  did  not  give; 

When  my  shadows  have  all  passed, 
You  shall  live. 
"  The  Sun-dial,''  Henry  van  Dyke. 

True  as  the  needle  to  the  pole, 
Or  as  the  dial  to  the  sun. 

Song,  Barton  Booth. 

Lux  Umbra  Dei. 
(Light,  the  shadow  of  God.) 

Transit  Umbra ;  Lux  permanent. 
(The  Shadow  passes ;  the  Light  remains.) 

Make  the  passing  shadow  serve  thy  will. 

"  The  Ancient  Sage,"  Tennyson. 


112         HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Sundial  motto  for  Dr.  Samuel  Bowditch : 

With  warning  hand  I  mark  Time's  rapid  flight 
From  life's  glad  morning  to  its  solemn  night ; 
Yet  through  the  dear  God's  love  I  also  show 
There's  Light  above  me  by  the  Shade  below. 

Whit  tier. 
True  as  the  dial  to  the  sun, 
Although  it  be  not  shined  upon. 

"  Hudibras"  Butler. 

I  am  a  Shade  —  a  Shadowe  too  art  thou. 
I  mark  the  time;  Saye,  Gossip!  Dost  thou  soe? 

Austin  Dobson. 

Hours  fly. 

Flowers  die; 

New  days, 

New  ways, 

Pass  by; 

Love  stays. 

Time  is 
Too  Slow  for  those  who  Wait, 
Too  Swift  for  those  who  Fear, 
Too  long  for  those  who  Grieve, 
Too  Short  for  those  who  Rejoice; 
But  for  those  who  Love, 
Time  is  not. 
"  Katrine's  Sun-Dial,"  Henri/  van  Dyke. 

Ora  e  sempre. 
(Now  and  ever.) 


FOR    THE    SUNDIAL  113 

Threefold  the  flight  of  time  from  first  to  last ; 
Loitering  slow  —  the  Future  creepeth, — 
Arrow-swift,  the  Present  sweepeth, — 
Motionless  forever,  stands  the  Past. 

Schiller. 
Tempus  omnia  revelat. 
(Time  reveals  all  things.) 

Copied  from  Samuel  Johnson's  watch-dial  motto  by 
Sir  Walter  Scott  for  the  sundial  in  the  garden,  Ab- 
botsford : 

For  the  night  cometh. 

On  an  eighteenth-century  cube  dial  in  Metropolitan 
Museum,  New  York: 

Eine  Stund  1st  gleich  vorbel, 

Schaue  was  das  Leben  sei. 
(Look  how  fast  speeds  an  hour  away, 
Soe,  what  Life  is,  thou  mayest  say.) 

Once  on  a  column  dial.  Corpus  Christi  College,  Ox- 
ford: 

Horas  Omnes  Complecta. 
(I  embrace  all  hours.) 

All  that  is,  at  all, 
Lasts  eA^er,  past  recall ; 
Earth  changes,  but  thy  soul, 
And  God  stand  sure. 

Robert  Browning. 


114         HEARTH    AND    GARTH 

Tyme  wanes  away 
As  flowers  decaye. 

Roi  Soleil 
Dits  moi  parler. 
(King  Sol,  tell  me  to  speak.) 

See  the  shadow  on  the  dial, 
In  the  lot  of  every  one, 
Marks  the  passing  of  the  trial. 
Proves  the  presence  of  a  sun. 

Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning. 


ACCOMPANIMENTS 
FOB  GIFTS 


If  instead  of  a  gem,  or  even  a  flower,  we  should  cast  the 
gift  of  a  loving  thought  into  the  heart  of  a  friend,  that  would 
be  giving,  I  think,  as  the  angels  must  give. 

George  MacDonald. 


INTRODUCTION 

OWHERE  more  certainly  than  as  re- 
gards the  giving  of  gifts  is  the  cry 
against  the  materialism  of  our  times 
more  apt  and  needful.     Even  If  we 
may  not  look  the  gift  horse  in  the 
mouth  we  do,  oftener  than  we  would 
care  to  confess,  take  note  on  the  cost 
of  it.      And  what   a  dangerous   thing,  after  all,  is 
this  giving  of  a  gift.      Yet  what  more  delightful  than 
both  to  receive  and  to  give. 

But  now  in  thinking  over  what  we  have  been  so 
happy  as  to  receive,  must  we  not  acknowledge  that  the 
thing  which  lingers  like  an  aroma  in  our  remembrance 
is  not  the  thing,  no, —  but  the  thought  that  was  sent 
with  it.  As  we  all  know  by  experience,  too,  it  is  not 
always  easy,  at  the  precise  moment  when  we  send  out 
some  little  friendly  token,  to  express  our  thoughts 
in  words.  Sometimes  a  classic  sentiment  or  a  phrase 
from  a  favorite  author  may  be  a  help.  But  we  would 
be  sorry  to  have  the  following  little  hints  at  expres- 
sion taken  too  literally  or  In  a  cut  and  dried  fashion. 
Their  better  purpose  will  be  served  if  they  suggest 
to  any  one  the  great  joy  of  going  a  quest  for  such 
among  the  rare  treasure-fields  of  literature. 


117 


AT  CHRISTMAS-TIDE 

I  come  from  heuin  to  tell 

The  best  nowellis  that  ever  be  fell. 

Old  English  Carol. 

In  a  Xmas  Posy,  1902: 

When  peace  on  earth  doth  stay 
'Tis  angels  ring  the  bells  — 

the  peasant  people  say. 
From  "  A  Christmas  Fancy,'^ 
Lady  Lindsay. 

Love  shall  be  our  token, 

Love  be  yours  and  love  be  mine, 

Love  to  God  and  all  men, 

Love  for  plea  and  gift  and  sign. 
"  Christmastide,"  Christina  Rossetti. 

The  Christmas-time !  the  lovely  things 

That  last  of  it !     Sweet  thoughts  and  deeds ! 
"  Christmas  Eve,"  John  Davidson. 

To  thee  and  thine 

From  me  and  mine, 

A  hearty  Christmas  greeting. 

Unidentified. 
118 


AT    CHRISTMAS-TIDE         119 

All  joie  and  jollitie 
Wait  on  thy  holiday, 
True  love  and  friendliness 
Hallow  thy  happiness. 

Old  Carol 

If  I  could  make  your  dreams  come  true, 
But  once  in  all  the  year, 
I'd  choose  this  Christmas  day,  my  friend. 
The  day  that's  now  and  here. 
"  A  Christmas  Wish,"  Bertram  B.  Udell, 

Then  be  you  glad,  good  people, 
At  this  time  of  the  year. 
And  light  you  up  your  candles. 
For  His  Star  shineth  clear. 

Old  Carol. 

May  Fate  who  spins  your  thread  of  Life, 
Use  Golden  Fleece.  .  .  . 

Unidentified. 

Jesus  Christ  was  born  of  Mary, 

Born  for  all,  born  for  all; 
Jesus  Christ  was  born  at  Christmas, 

Well  befall,  hearth  and  hall ! 

Ancient  Carol. 

Peace  and  goodwill,  goodwill  and  peace, 
Peace  and  goodwill,  to  all  mankind. 

Alfred  Tennyson. 


120  FORGIFTS 

From  an  old  English  wassail : 

Love  and  joy  come  to  you, 
And  to  you  your  wassail  too, 
And  God  bless  you,  and  send  you 
A  happy  New  Year. 

Sudden  a  star  has  led  us  on, 
Raining  bliss  and  benison  — 
Bliss  to-morrow  and  more  anon, 
Joy  for  every  morning. 
Quoted  vn  "  The  Wind  in  the  Willows" 
by  Kenneth  Grahame. 

From  a  Balliol  manuscript,  about  1540: 

Now  have  good  day,  now  have  good  day! 
I  am  Christmas,  and  now  I  go  my  way ! 


Now  fare  ye  well  all  in-fere ! 
Now  fare  ye  well  for  all  this  year, 
Yet  for  my  sake  make  ye  good  cheer ! 
Noxv  have  Good  Day! 

Some  saycs,  that  ever  'gainst  that  Season  comes 
Wherein  our  Saviour's  Birth  is  celebrated, 
The  Bird  of  Dawning  singeth  all  night  long: 
And  then  (they  say)  no  Spirit  can  walke  abroad. 
The  nights  are  wholesome,  then  no  Planets  strike. 
No  Faery  talkes,  nor  Witch  hath  power  to  Charme : 
So  hallowed,  and  so  gracious  is  the  time. 

Shakespeare. 


AT    CHRISTMAS-TIDE         121 

Refrain  from  the  oldest  Christmas  carol,  thirteenth 
century : 

May  joy  come  from  God  above, 
To  all  those  who  Christmas  love. 

For  it  is  in  Christmas  time 

That  friends  travel  far  and  near: 
So  God  bless  you,  and  send  you 
A  Happy  New  Year. 
Carol  sung  hy  village  children  in  England. 

Glory  to  God  in  loftiest  heaven. 

Touch  with  glad  hand  the  ancient  chord ; 
Good  tidings  unto  man  forgiven, 

Peace  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord. 

Old  Cornish  Carol, 
by  Robert  Stephen  Hawker. 


FOR  THE  NEW  YEAR 

I  would  flood  your  path  with  sunshine ; 

I  would  fence  you  from  all  ill ; 

I  would  crown  you  with  all  blessings ; 

If  I  could  but  have  my  will. 

Yes,  but  human  love  may  err,  dear, 

And  a  power  all  wise  is  near. 

So  I  only  pray  God  bless  you ! 

And,  God  keep  you  through  the  year ! 

Anonymous, 

Here  and  away  in  good  faith  we  pace: 
A  happy  evening  God  give  you  in  grace ; 
A  happy  evening,  a  joyful  new  year, 
That  no  misfortune  to  you  come  near. 
"  Carol  of  the  Three  Kings"  translated 
from  the  German  hy  Lady  Lindsay. 

Go,  breathe  it  in  the  ear 
Of  all  who  doubt  and  fear. 
And  say  to  them,  "  Be  of  good  cheer !  " 
From  "  L' Envoi,"  Longfellow. 

The   best    wishes    that    can    be    forged    in    your 

thoughts  be  servants  to  you. 

"  All's  Well  TJmt  Ends  Well^  i,  1, 

Shakespeare. 
122 


FOR    THE    NEW    YEAR  123 

May  the  buttercups  yield  you  their  gold: 
And  the  violets  their  flask  of  sweet  dew ; 

And  the  poppies  soft  slumber  unfold, 
And  the  witch-hazel  bring  my  wish  true 

For  happiness  all  the  year  through. 

E.  L,  Darling. 

Dutch  New  Year  Greeting  in  the  Mohawk  Valley: 

Ik  wens  u  gluck  saaltic  rein  jar. 

Dat  gy  lang  leben  mag  — 

Veell  geben  mag  — 

En  de  kernigh-reish  von  de  himmel  erben  mogh. 

(May  you  have  a  happy  new  year. 
Long  life, 
Much  to  give  away, 

And  an  inheritance  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.) 
Translated  hy  E.  L.  Darling. 

Here's  to  the  friend  we  can  trust ; 

When  the  stormes  of  adversity  blaw; 

Who  can  join  in  our  song,  and  be  nearest  our 

heart, 
Nor  depart, —  like  the  year  that's  awa. 

Andrew  Marvell. 

Princess  Shirakawa  with  a  gift  of  grasses : 

Seven  plants  I  send  you,  on  a  bamboo  stand, 
Each  symbolizing  Life,  happy  and  long. 

Translated  hy  Arthur  Lloyd. 


124  FORGIFTS 

I  awake   this  morning  with  devout  Thanksgiving 
for  my  friends,  the  old  and  the  new. 

Emerson. 

Example  of  a  verse  accompaniment  to  a  Flower  Ar- 
rangement (of  Pine  and  Plum  blossoms)  from  a 
Japanese  wife  to  her  husband: 

Oh !  sturdy  Pine  tree  spray, 
Take  to  my  lord 
This  loving  word. 
And  let  the  pearly  flowers  of  the  Plum 

In  fragrance  say 
From  whom,  love-weighted,  they  have  come. 
This  New  Year's  Day. 

See  "  Japanese  Gardens,*^ 
Mrs.  Basil  Taylor. 

Goe  not  half  way  to  meet  a  coming  Sorrow 
Butte  thankeful  bee  for  Blessings  of  to-day, 
And  pray  that  thou  mayest  blessed  bee  to-morrowe. 
So  shalt  thou  goe  with  joy  upon  thy  way. 

Adolphus  Goss. 


FOR  SPRING  TIME 

Plearty  faith  and  honest  cheer 
Welcome  in  the  sweet  o'  the  year. 
"  The  Sweet  o'  the  Yeary"  George  Meredith. 

Sound  the  flute. 
Now  'tis  mute ; 
Birds  delight 
Day  and  night; 
Nightingale 
In  the  dale, 
Lark  in  sky  — 
Merrily, 
Merrily,  merrily  to  welcome  in  the  year. 

"  Spring,"  William  Blake. 

Spring,  the  sweet  spring, 
Is  the  year's  pleasant  king. 

"  A  Spring  Song"  Tlwmas  Nash. 

I  would  the  gift  I  offer  here 

Might  graces  from  thy  favor  take, 
And,  seen  through  Friendship's  atmosphere, 
On  softened  lines  and  coloring,  wear 

The  unaccustomed  light  of  beauty,  for  thy  sake. 

Dedication  to  "  Songs  of  Labor,"  Whittier. 
1£I5 


126  FORGIFTS 

Gloomy  winter's  now  awa', 
Saft  the  westlan'  breezes  blaw: 


Round  the  sylvan  fairy  nooks, 
Feath'ry  brackens  fringe  the  rocks, 
'Neath  the  brae  the  burnie  jouks, 

And  ilka  thing  is  cheerie,  O. 
Trees  may  bud,  and  birds  may  sing, 
Flowers  may  bloom,  and  verdure  spring, 
Joy  to  me  they  canna  bring, 

Unless  wi'  thee,  my  dearie,  O. 

"  Gloomy  Winter's  Now  Awa\** 
Robert  TannahUl. 

Brighter  look  the  early  flowers. 

Louder  sounds  the  skylark's  strain; 

Blue  the  air  and  green  the  bowers. 
And  the  heart  feels  young  again. 

Shaking  off  all  bonds  and  fetters, 

Flinging  every  chain  aside. 
Life  in  sunshine  flows  and  glitters 

Like  the  freely  flowing  tide. 

Do  you  hear  fresh  voices  singing, 

And  all  pulses  beating  high. 
As  if  chords  unseen  were  ringing, 
Tightly  drawn  from  earth  to  sk}'? 

"  Renewal"  Count  Leo  Tolstoy, 
translation  of  S.  N.  Wolkonsky. 


FOR    SPRING    TIME  127 

But  green  leaves  and  blossoms, 

And  sunny  warm  weather, 
And  singing  and  loving 

All  come  back  together. 

Coleridge, 

To  thee  I  wish  one  precious  thing, 
That  joy  each  day  in  thy  heart  sing; 
As  clear  as  now  the  glad  bells  ring, 
And  all  the  world  thrills  toward  the  spring. 


FOR  BIRTHDAYS 

Madam,  new  years  may  well  expect  to  find 
Welcome  from  you,  to  whom  they  are  so  kind. 
Still  as  they  pass,  they  court  and  smile  on  you, 
And  make  your  beauty,  as  themselves,  seem  new. 

Edmund  Waller. 

Pleas'd  to  look  forward,  pleas'd  to  look  behind, 
And  count  each  birthday  with  a  grateful  mind. 

Alexander  Pope. 

Oh,  Day,  if  I  squander  a  wavelet  of  thee, 

A  mite  of  my  twelve-hours'  treasure. 

The  least  of  thy  gazes  or  glances, 

(Be   they   grants   thou   art   bound   to    or   gifts 

above  measure) 
One  of  thy  choices  or  one  of  thy  chances, 
(Be  they  tasks  God  imposed  thee  or  freaks  at 

thy  pleasure) 
—  My  Day,  if  I  squander  such  labor  or  leisure. 
Then  shame  fall  on  Asolo,  mischief  on  me ! 

"  Pippa  Passes,^'  Robert  Browning. 

May  you  have  all  that  you  need. 

Almost  all  that  you  want, 

And  happiness,  whether  or  no. 

Unidentified. 
128 


FOR    BIRTHDAYS  129 

So  here  hath  been  dawning 

Another  blue  day : 
Think  wilt  thou  let  it 

Slip  useless  away. 

Out  of  Eternity 

This  new  day  is  born ; 
Into  Eternity 

At  night  will  return. 

Behold  it  aforetime 

No  eye  ever  did ; 
So  soon  it  for  ever 

From  all  eyes  is  hid. 

Here  hath  been  dawning 

Another  blue  day: 
Think  wilt  thou  let  it 

Slip  useless  away. 

"  To-day;'  TJiomas  Carlyle. 

.  .  .  make  this  forenoon  sublime, 
This  afternoon  a  psalm,  this  night  a  prayer. 
"  Life^'  Edward  Rowland  Sill. 

Event?     Each  new  day's  a  divine  event 

To  a  great  soul.     The  commonest  pale  dawn 
Dissolving  darkness,  stars  already  gone. 

Is  a  new  birth ;  .  .  . 

"  The  Event;'  author  of  "  The  Professor;' 


130  FOR    GIFTS 

Let  this  auspicious  morning  be  express'd 
With  a  white  stone  distinguished  from  the  rest; 
White  as  thy  fame,  and  as  thy  honour  clear; 
And  let  new  joys  attend  on  thy  new  added  year. 

Dryden, 

Across  a  thousand  leagues  of  land 

The  mighty  sun  looks  free, 
And  in  their  fringe  of  rock  or  sand 

A  thousand  leagues  of  sea. 
Lo!  I,  in  this  majestic  room, 

As  real  as  the  sun, 
Inherit  this  day  and  its  doom 

Eternally  begun. 
A  world  of  men  the  rays  illume, 

God's  men,  and  I  am  one. 
But  life  that  is  not  pure  and  bold 
Doth  tarnish  every  morning's  gold. 

"  A  New  Day,^^  William  AlUngJiam, 

For  you  may  years  like  leaves  unfold 
The  heart  of  Sharon's  rose. 

"  Winter  Roses"  Whittier, 

The  day  is  always  his  who  works  in  it  with  seren- 
ity and  great  aims. 

Emerson, 


AT  COMMENCEMENT  TIME 

Now  in  those  days  of  simpleness  and  faith, 
Men  did  not  think  that  happy  things  were  dreams 
Because  they  overstepped  the  narrow  bourne 
Of  likehhood,  but  reverently  deemed 
Nothing  too  wondrous  or  too  beautiful 
To  be  the  guerdon  of  a  daring  heart. 

"  Rhoecus"  Lowell. 

Are  you  in  earnest?     Seize  this  very  minute; 
What  you  can  do,  or  dream  you  can,  begin  it ; 
Boldness  has  genius,  power,  and  magic  in  it. 
Only  engage,  and  then  the  mind  grows  heated ; 
Begin,  and  then  the  work  will  be  completed. 

Goethe. 

.  .  .  What  men  call  luck 
Is  the  prerogative  of  valiant  souls. 
The  fealty  life  pays  its  rightful  kings. 
"  A  Glance  behind  the  Curtain,'*  Lowell. 

Little  or  great  is  man ; 

Great  if  he  will,  or  if  he  will 
A  pigmy  still; 
For  what  he  will  he  can. 

Christina  Rossetti, 
131 


132  FORGIFTS 

Lot's  take  the  instant,  by  the  forward  top. 

"  All's  Well  That  Ends  Well,"  v,  5, 
Shakespeare. 

Patience  passe  science. 
(Patience  exceeds  knowledge.) 

Palma  non  sine  pulvere. 
(The  palm  is  not  won  without  the  dust  of  labor.) 

Motto  of  State  of  Kansas: 

Through  difficulties  to  the  stars. 

Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy 
might. 

Bible. 

This  world  belongs  to  the  energetic. 

Emerson. 

Fortes  Fortuna  Adjuvat. 
(Fortune  favors  the  brave.) 

Terence. 

Self-ease  is  pain ;  thy  only  rest 
Is  labor  for  a  worthy  end. 

J.  G.  Whit  tier. 

We  are  always  complaining  that  our  days  are  few, 
and  acting  as  though  there  would  be  no  end  of  them. 

Seneca. 


AT    COMMENCEMENT    TIME      133 

When  a  resolute  young  fellow  steps  up  to  the  great 
bully,  the  World,  and  takes  him  boldly  by  the  beard, 
he  is  often  surprised  to  find  it  comes  off  in  his  hand, 
and  that  it  was  only  tied  on  to  scare  away  timid  ad- 
venturers. 

O.  W,  Holmes. 

He  is  gentil  that  doth  gentil  deedis. 

Chaucer. 

Go  boldly,  go  serenely,  go  augustly  — 
What  shall  withstand  thee  then? 

Robert  Browning. 

Nothing  is  too  high  to  be  reached,  or  too  good  to 
be  true. 

Charles  Gordon  Ames. 

You  will  find  that  luck 

Is  only  pluck 
To  try  things  over  and  over; 

Patience  and  skill. 

Courage  and  will. 
Are  the  four  leaves  of  luck's  clover. 

Anonymous. 

My  fairest  child,  I  have  no  song  to  give  you ; 

No  lark  could  pipe  to  skies  so  dull  and  gray : 
Yet,  ere  we  part,  one  lesson  I  can  leave  you 
For  every  day. 


134  FORGIFTS 

Be  good,  sweet  maid,  and  let  who  will  be  clever ; 

Do  noble  things,  not  dream  them  all  day  long: 
And  so  make  life,  death,  and  that  vast  forever, 
One  grand  sweet  song. 

"  A  Farermll,"  Charles  Kingsley, 

Let  a  man  contend  to  the  uttermost 
For  his  life's  set  prize,  be  it  what  it  will ! 

Robert  Browning. 

Wouldst  shape  a  noble  life?     Then  cast 
No  backward  glances  toward  the  past. 
And  though  somewhat  be  lost  and  gone. 
Yet  do  thou  act  as  one  new-born ; 
What  each  day  needs,  that  shalt  thou  ask, 
Each  day  will  set  its  proper  task. 

Goethe. 

.  .  .  fortunate  means  that  a  man  has  assigned  to 
himself  a  good  fortune;  and  a  good  fortune  is  good 
disposition  of  the  soul,  good  emotions,  good  actions. 
Meditations  V,  Marcus  Aureliiis. 

Faber  est  quisque  f  ortunae  suae. 
(Every  man  is  the  architect  of  his  own  fortune.) 

Salliist. 

Chi  va  piano  va  sano, 

Chi  va  sano  va  lontano. 
(He  who  goes  gently  goes  safely; 
He  who  goes  safely  goes  far.) 


AT    COMMENCEMENT    TIME      135 

A  wise  man  knows  an  Ignorant  man,  because  he  has 
been  ignorant  himself ;  but  the  ignorant  cannot  recog- 
nize the  wise,  because  he  has  never  been  wise. 

They  asked  their  wisest  man  by  what  means  he  had 
attained  to  such  a  degree  of  knowledge.  He  replied : 
"  Whatever  I  did  not  know,  I  was  not  ashamed  to  in- 
quire about.'* 

From  the  Persia/rt, 


SAINT  VALENTINE'S  DAY 

Though  all  the  streams  are  white  with  frost 

And  all  the  fields  with  snow, 
Though  earth  its  greenery  has  lost 

And  biting  gales  do  blow  — 
Still  I'll  recall  the  summer  hours, 

The  blue  skies  and  the  vine  — 
The  hillsides  pink  with  Alpine  flowers 

To  greet  my  Valentine. 

Robert  Bridges. 

You  see  my  heart  is  split  in  two 
And  the  largest  half  I  offer  you. 

Unidentified. 

Something  there  is  moves  me  to  love,  and  I 
Do  know  I  love,  but  know  not  how,  nor  why. 
Alexander  Brome,  1620-66. 

My  heart  is  ever  at  your  service. 
"  Timon  of  Athens"  i,  2,  Shakespeare. 

I'll  be  a  tree,  if  thou  wilt  be  its  blossom : 
I'll  be  a  flower,  if  thou  wilt  be  its  dew ; 

I'll  be  the  dew,  if  tliou  wilt  be  the  sunbeam  ; 

Where'er  thou  art,  let  me  be  near  thee  too. 

"  A  Fori',"  Alexander  Petof. 
136 


SAINT    VALENTINE'S    DAY      137 

Heart's  content  can  ne'er  repent ; 
As  I  to  thee,  so  wish  to  me. 
From  an  old  ring  posy  in  Love's  Garland. 

I  am  your  friend  unto  the  end. 
Yours  I  am ;  be  mine  again. 

Ibid. 
Ring  Posies: 

No  gift  can  show 
The  love  I  owe. 

In  God  and  thee 
Shall  my  joy  be. 

In  thee,  my  choice, 
I  do  rejoice. 

Dated  1677. 
Happy  in  thee 
Hath  God  made  me. 

I  wish  to  thee 
All  joy  may  be. 

Found  in  a  seventeenth-century  miscellany: 

Constancy  and  Heaven  are  round 
And  in  this  the  Emblem's  found. 

Life  is  a  flower  of  which  love  is  the  honey. 

Victor  Hugo. 


138  FORGIFTS 

The  spring  hath  not  so  many  flowers ; 

The  autumn,  grapes  within  its  bowers ; 

The  summer,  heats  that  make  men  pale; 

The  winter,  stores  of  icy  hail ; 

Nor  fishes  hath  the  boundless  sea, 

Nor  harvests  in  fair  Beau  there  be ; 

Nor  Brittany,  unnumbered  sands, 

Nor  fountains  have  Auvergne's  broad  lands; 

Nor  hath  so  many  stars  the  night. 

Nor  the  wide  woodland  branches  light, — 

As  hath  my  heart  of  heavy  pains, 

Born  of  my  mistress's  disdains. 

Song:  "  To  Marie  "  Pierre  Ronsard, 
trcmslation  of  Katharine  Hillard. 


FOR  WEDDINGS  AND  WEDDING 
ANNIVERSARIES 

Look  down,  you  gods, 
And  on  this  couple  drop  a  blessed  crown. 

"  Tempest"  v,  1,  Shakespeare. 

Well  married,  a  man  is  winged. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

My  gentle  lady, 
I  wish  you  all  the  joy  that  you  can  wish. 

"  Merchant  of  Venice,'*  Hi,  2,  Shakespeare, 

The  roads  should  blossom,  the  roads  should  bloom, 

So  fair  a  bride  shall  leave  her  home! 
Should  blossom  and  bloom  with  garlands  gay. 
So  fair  a  bride  shall  pass  to-day ! 

"  The  Blind  Girl  of  Castil-Cuille,'* 

Longfellow. 

Though  fools  spurn  Hymen's  gentle  pow'rs. 
We  who  improve  his  golden  hours. 

By  sweet  experience  know, 
That  marriage,  rightly  understood. 
Gives  to  the  tender  and  the  good 

A  paradise  below. 

Cotton. 
139 


140  FORGIFTS 

Domestic  happiness,  thou  only  bliss 
Of  Paradise  that  hast  survived  the  fall. 

Cowper. 

All  this,  of  whose  large  use  I  sing,  in  two  words 
is  expressed : 

Good  Wyfe  is  the  good  I  praise,  if  by  good  men 

possessed. 
Bad  with  bad  in  ill  suit  well,  but  good  with  good 

live  blessed. 

"  Far  above  Rubies,"  Thomas  Campion. 

Many    happy    years,    unbroken    friendships,    and 
cheerful  recollections. 

Charles  Dickens, 

Blessings  as  rich  and  fragrant  crown  your  heads 
As  the  mild  heaven  on  roses  sheds 
When  at  their  cheeks  like  pearls  they  Avear 
The  clouds  that  court  them  In  a  tear. 

"  Epithalamium,"  Henry  Vaughan. 

Soft  as  yourselves  run  your  whole  lives,  and  clear 
As  your  own  glass,  or  what  shines  there. 

Like  the  Day's  warmth  may  all  your  comforts  be, 
Untoil'd  for  and  serene  as  he. 

•  •••••• 

Ihid. 


FOR    WEDDINGS  141 

Fresh  as  the  Hours  may  all  your  pleasures  be, 
And  healthful  as  Eternity. 

•  •••••• 

Ibid, 

Hear  the  mellow  wedding  bells, 

Golden  bells ! 
What  a  world  of  happiness  their  harmony  foretells ! 
Through  the  balmy  air  of  night, 
How  they  ring  out  their  delight ! 
From  the  molten-golden  notes, 

And  all  in  tune. 
What  a  liquid  ditty  floats 
To  the  turtle  dove  that  listens,  while  she  gloats 

On  the  moon! 
Oh,  from  out  the  sounding  cells. 
What  a  gush  of  euphony  voluminously  wells! 

To  the  rhyming  and  the  chiming  of  the  bells. 

"  The  Bells,"  Foe. 


FOR  FRIENDS  WHO  ARE  ILL 

Confide  ye  aye  in  Providence,  for  Providence  is  kind, 
And  bear  ye  a'  life's  changes  wi'  a  calm  and  tranquil 

mind; 
Tho'  press'd  and  hemm'd  on  every  side,  hae  faith  an' 

ye'll  win  through, 
For  ilka  blade  o'  grass  keps  its  ain  drap  o'  dew. 

Ballantine. 

I  am  about  knocked  out  of  time  now;  a  miserable, 
snuffling,  shivering,  fever-stricken,  nightmare-ridden, 
knee-j  ottering,  hoast-hoast-hoasting  shadow  and  re- 
mains of  man.  But  we'll  no  gie  ower  jist  yet  a  bittie. 
We've  seen  waur;  and  dod,  mem,  it's  my  belief  that 
we'll  see  better. 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 

When  the  day  looks  kind'er  gloomy 
And  your  chances  kinder  slim 
When  the  situation's  puzzhng 
And  your  prospect's  awful  glim 
And  perplexities  keep  a-pressin' 
Till  all  hope  is  nearly  gone. 
Just  grit  your  teeth  and  work  and  save 
And  keep  on  keepin'  on. 

Unidentified. 
143 


FRIENDS    WHO    ARE    ILL      143 

Joy  and  woe  are  woven  fine, 
A  clothing  for  the  soul  divine; 
Under  every  grief  and  pine 
Runs  a  joy  with  silken  twine. 
It  is  right  it  should  be  so; 
Man  was  made  for  joy  and  woe; 
And  when  this  we  rightly  know, 
Safely  through  the  world  we  go. 

"  Life,"  William  Blake. 

'Tain't  no  use  to  grumble  and  complain ; 

It's  jest  as  easy  to  rejoice; 
When  God  sorts  out  the  weather  and  sends  rain. 

Why,  rain's  my  choice. 

James  Whitcomb  RHey. 

Sorrow  and  silence  are  strong,  and  patient  endur- 
ance is  godlike. 

"  Evangeline,"  Longfellow. 

How  poor  are  they  that  have  not  patience, 
What  wound  did  ever  heal,  but  by  degrees. 

"  Othello,"  iiy  3,  Shakespeare. 

To  bear  is  to  conquer  our  fate. 

Thomas  Campbell. 

Man  cannot  make,  but  may  ennoble  fate, 
By  nobly  bearing  it. 

"  A  Love-letter,"  Bulxcer  Lytton. 


144  FORGIFTS 

Flesh  may  empaire  (quote  he)  but  reason  can  repaire. 
"  The  Faery  Queene,"  Canto  VII,  Spenser. 

Nil  desperandum. 
(Never  despairing.) 

I  say  to  thee,  do  thou  repeat 

To  the  first  man  thou  mayest  meet 

In  lane,  highway,  or  open  street  — 

That  he  and  we  and  all  men  move 

Under  a  canopy  of  love, 

As  broad  as  the  blue  sky  above ; 

That  doubt  and  trouble,  fear  and  pain 
And  anguish,  all  are  shadows  vain, 
That  death  itself  shall  not  remain ; 

That  weary  deserts  we  may  tread, 
A  dreary  labyrinth  may  thread. 
Through  dark  ways  underground  be  led ; 

Yet,  if  we  will  one  Guide  obey, 
The  dreariest  path,  the  darkest  way 
Shall  issue  out  in  heavenly  day; 

And  we,  on  divers  shores  now  cast, 
Shall  meet,  our  perilous  voyage  past. 
All  in  our  Father's  house  at  last. 

Richard  Chenerix  Trench, 


FRIENDS    WHO    ARE    ILL      145 

Patience  is  the  king  of  Paradise. 

Persian  proverb. 

The  gem  cannot  be  polished  without  friction, 
Nor  man  perfected  without  trials. 

Chinese. 

When  fortune  means  to  men  most  good, 
She  looks  upon  them  with  a  threatening  eye. 
"  King  John,"  Hi,  4,  Shakespeare. 


FOR  THOSE  WHO  GO 
A-TRAVELING 

Be  blythe  in  heart  for  ony  adventure. 

From,  "  No  Treasure  without  Gladness  " 

William  Dunbar. 
To  a  friend  on  his  marriage: 

Now,  farewell. 
It  is  a  word, —  sometime  a  thought  of  joy, 
Sometime  of  sorrow.     Joy  to  thy  future. 

WUUam  E.  Channvng. 

The  joys  of  meeting  pay  the  pangs  of  absence. 
"  Tamerlane,"  ii,  i,  Rowe, 

Parting's  well-paid  with  "  soon  again  to  meet." 
"  There,  Where  the  Sun  Shines  First,'* 
Coventry  Pat  more. 
In  the  hope  to  meet 
Shortly  again,  and  make  our  absence  sweet. 

"  Underwoods,"  Ben  Jonson. 

All  travel  has  its  advantages.     If  the  passenger 

visits  better  countries,  he  may  learn  to  improve  his 

own ;  and  if  fortune  carries  him  to  worse,  he  may 

learn  to  enjoy  his  own. 

Dr.  Samuel  Johnson. 
146 


WHO    GO    A-TRAVELING       147 

A  wise  traveller  never  despises  his  own  country. 

Italian  proverb. 

Manuia  .  .  .  Samoan    for    "  Good    luck    to    the 
traveling." 

Keep  not  standing  fixed  and  rooted, 
Briskly  venture,  briskly  roam: 

Hand  and  head,  where'er  thou  foot  it, 
And  stout  heart,  are  still  at  home. 

In  each  land  the  sun  does  visit 

We  are  gay,  whate'er  betide: 
To  give  room  for  wandering  is  it 

That  the  world  was  made  so  wide. 

A  Song  in  "  WilJielm  Meister,"  Goethe, 
translation  by  Thomas  Carlyle. 

Step  by  step  one  gets  to  Rome. 

Italian  proverb. 

Nothing  is  lost  on  a  journey  by  stopping  to  pray 
or  to  feed  your  horse. 

Spanish. 

Farewell !     But  in  our  hearts  we  have  you  yet, 
Holding  our  heritage  with  loving  hand, 
Who  may  not  follow  where  your  feet  are  set 
Upon  the  ways  of  Wonderland. 

London  Pimch,  in  Memory  of  Lewis  Carroll^ 

Author  Unidentified. 


148  FORGIFTS 

The  stars  are  with  the  voyager 

Wherever  he  may  sail; 
The  moon  is  constant  to  her  time; 

The  sun  will  never  fail; 
But  follow,  follow,  round  the  world, 

The  green  earth  and  the  sea ; 
So  love  is  with  the  lover's  heart, 

Wherever  he  may  be. 

Wherever  he  may  be,  the  stars. 

Must  daily  lose  their  light; 
The  moon  will  veil  her  in  the  shade ; 

The  sun  will  set  at  night. 
The  sun  may  set,  but  constant  love 

Will  shine  when  he's  away ; 
So  that  dull  night  is  never  night, 

And  day  is  brighter  day. 

"  Song;'  Thomas  Hood. 

Go  where  he  will,  the  wise  man  is  at  home, 
His  hearth  the  earth, —  his  hall  the  azure  dome ; 
Where  his  clear  spirit  leads  him,  there's  his   road. 
By  God's  own  light  illumined  and  foreshowed. 

Emerson. 

Peregrination  charms  our  senses,  with  such  un- 
speakable and  sweet  variety,  that  some  count  him 
unhappy  who  never  travelled  —  a  kind  of  prisoner, 
and  pity  his  case  that  from  his  cradle  to  his  old  age, 
he  beholds  the  same  still,  still, —  the  same,  the  same. 

Burton. 


WHO    GO    A-TRAVELING       14,9 

Though  we  ti-avel  the  world  over  to  find  the  beauti- 
ful, we  must  carry  it  with  us,  or  we  find  it  not. 

"Art,"  Emerson. 

The  boat  sails  away,  like  a  bird  on  the  wing. 
And  the  little  boys  dance  on  the  sands  in  a  ring. 
—  The  wind  may  fall,  or  the  wind  may  rise  — 
You  are  foolish  to  go ;  you  will  stay  if  you're  wise. 
The  little  boys  dance,  and  the  little  girls  run: 
If  it's  bad  to  have  money,  it's  worse  to  have  none. 
"  Under  the  Window,"  Kate  Greenaway. 

For  they  sa}',  if  money  go  before, 
All  ways  do  lie  open. 

Shakespeare. 
Never  go  to  France, 
Unless  you  know  the  lingo ; 
If  you  do,  like  me, 
You  will  repent,  by  jingo. 
From  "  French  and  English,"  Thomas  Hood. 

I  am  a  part  of  all  that  I  have  met, 

Yet  all  experience  is  an  arch  wherethro' 

Gleams  that  untraveled  world  whose  margin  fades 

Forever  and  forever  as  I  move. 

Tennyson. 

I  find  the  great  thing  in  this  world  is  not  so.  much 
where  we  stand  as  in  what  direction  we  are  moving. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 


WITH  GIFTES  VARIOUS  AND 
SUNDRY 

'Tis  not  the  gift  which  marks  the  festival, 
Nor  lights  nor  garlands  make  the  holiday, 
The  happy  mind  in  working  is  at  play ; 
Spring's  herald-bird  brings  summer  on  its  wing ; 
The  heart's  the  happy  day's  best  madrigal. 

Unidentified. 

The  bread  of  life  is  love ;  the  salt  of  life  is  work ; 
the  sweetness  of  life,  poesy,  the  water  of  life,  faith. 

Mrs.  Jameson. 

Thy  greeting  smile  was  pledge  and  prelude 
Of  generous  deeds  and  kindly  words ; 
In  thy  large  heart  were  fair  guest  chambers 

Open  to  sunrise  and  the  birds. 

Whit  tier. 

The  things  that  are  really  for  thee  gravitate  to  thee. 
"  The  Over-soul,"  Emerson. 

If  words  came  as  ready  as  ideas  and  ideas  as  feel- 
ings I  could  say  ten  hundred  kindly  things.  You 
know  not  my  supreme  happiness  at  having  one  on 
earth  whom  I  can  call  friend. 

Charles  Lamb. 
150 


VARIOUS    AND    SUNDRY       151 

All  good  to  kindred  natures  cleaveth  soon. 

Sonnet  III^  "  Guido  Cavalanti,'^ 
translation  of  D.  G.  Rossetti. 

Unto  gentleness  belong 
Gifts  unknown  to  pride  and  wrong; 
Happier  far  than  hate  is  praise, — 
He  who  sings  than  he  who  slays. 

"  How  the  Robin  Came,"  Whittier. 

Flowers  and  fruits  are  always  fit  presents  — 
flowers,  because  they  are  a  proud  assertion  that  a 
ray  of  beauty  outvalues  all  the  utilities  of  man. 

Emerson. 

Every  gift  of  noble  origin 
Is  breathed  upon  by  Hope's  perpetual  breath. 
"  These  Times"  Wordsworth, 

Wi'  favours  secret,  sweet  and  precious. 

"  Tarn  o'Shanter,"  Burns, 

In  giving,  a  man  receives  more  than  he  gives,  and 
the  more  is  in  proportion  to  the  worth  of  the  thing 
given. 

"  Mary  Marston  F,"  George  MacDonald. 

Well  assured  that  thou  wilt  take 
Even  the  offering  which  I  make 
Kindly  for  the  giver's  sake. 

**  Remembrance,"  Whittier, 


152  FOR    GIFTS 

Go  therefore  thou  for  me 

Straight  to  my  lady's  face, 
Who,  of  her  noble  grace, 
Shall  show  thee  courtesy. 
From  Ballata,  "  In  Exile  at  Sarzana  " 

Guido  Cavalcantiy 
translation  of  D.  G.  Rossetti. 

Where  more  is  meant  than  meets  the  ear. 

"  II  Penseroso"  Milton, 

Ab  imo  pectore. 
(From  the  bottom  of  my  heart.) 

Virgil. 
Detur  digniori. 
(Let  it  be  given  to  the  most  worthy.) 

Latin  saying. 

In  giving,  a  man  receives  more  than  he  gives. 
"  Mary  Marston"  George  MacDonald. 

The  gift,  to  be  true,  must  be  the  flowing  of  the 
giver  unto  me,  correspondent  to  my  flowing  unto  him. 
"  Of  Gifts,"  Essays,  Emerson. 

Presents,  I  often  say,  endear  absents. 
"^  Dissertation  on  Roast  Pig,"  Charles  Lamb. 

Motto  of  the  Irish  viscount  Tracey: 
Memoria  in  aetema. 
(In  eternal  remembrance.) 


VARIOUS    AND    SUNDRY       153 

.  .  .  The  less  they  deserve,  the  more  merit  is  in 
your  bounty.     Take  them  in. 

"  Hamlet;'  ii,  1. 

Not  want  of  heart,  but  want  of  Art, 
Hath  made  my  gift  so  small ; 
Then  loving  heart  take  hearty  love. 
To  make  amends  for  all. 

Unidentified. 

.  ,  .  gifts,  the  signes  of  gratefull  mynd. 

"  Faerie  Queene,"  Canto  IX,  18,  Spenser, 

Their  hearts  she  ghesseth  by  their  humble  guise. 

Ihid,  Canto  VI,  13. 

The  hand  that  gives,  gathers. 

Old  proverb. 

In  kind  remembrance  and  to  wish  you  well. 

Anonymous. 

With  a  set  of  postcards  or  writing  paper: 

No  day  without  a  line. 

(Nulla  dies  sine  linea.) 

Pliny. 
With  a  bayberry  candle: 

A  little  light  to  show  the  way. 

Anonymous. 

It  is  a  poor  sport  that  is  not  worth  the  candle. 
"  J  acuta  Pradentum,"  George  Herbert. 


154  FORGIFTS 

Inscription  by  Eugene  Field  and  engraved  on  a 
silver  plate:  "Unto  Roswell  Francis  Field,  his 
father,  Eugene  Field,  giveth  this  Counsel  with  this 
Plate.     Sept.  2,  1893." 

When  thou  shalt  eat  from  off  this  plate, 
I  charge  thee  be  thou  temperate ; 
Unto  thine  elders  at  the  board 
Do  thou  sweet  reverence  accord; 
Though  unto  dignity  inclined, 
Unto  the  serving  folk  be  kind; 
Be  ever  mindful  of  the  poor, 
Nor  turn  them  hungry  from  the  door ; 
And  unto  God,  for  health  and  food. 
And  all  that  in  thy  life  is  good, 
Give  thou  thy  heart  in  gratitude. 

"A  cabinet  being  sent  to  a  gentlewoman  these 
verses  were  put  in  one  of  the  drawers  " : 

This  little  cabinet  will  conceal 
All  things  which  you  would  not  reveal ; 
Your  letters  and  your  other  things, 
As  your  jewels  and  3^our  rings. 
Let  me  know  then  in  what  part, 
Or  box,  you  will  lay  up  my  heart. 
Which  with  it  I  doe  send,  and  pray 
That  in  your  heart  you  would  it  lay. 
Let  me  such  favour  from  you  get ; 
Make  your  heart  my  heart's  cabinet. 

Unidentifed. 


VARIOUS    AND    SUNDRY       155 


With  a  magazine: 

Somewhat  to  pass  away  the  time. 

Sermon  XIV,  Bishop  Butler. 

The  pen  is  the  tongue  of  the  mind. 

Cervantes. 

The  pen  is  both  a  rod  and  a  sceptre. 

Aretino. 

When  about  to  put  your  words  in  ink, 
'Twill  do  no  harm  to  stop  and  think. 

The  last  and  greatest  art,  the  art  to  blot. 

Epistles,  Alexander  Pope. 
On  a  fan: 

What  daring  bard  shall  e'er  attempt  to  tell 
The  powers  that  in  this  little  engine  dwell  .!* 
What  verse  can  e'er  explain  its  various  parts. 
Its  numerous  uses,  motions,  charms  and  arts.'' 
Its  shake  triumph,  its  virtuous  clap, 
Its  angry  flutter,  and  its  wanton  tap. 

Unidentified. 

A  box  where  sweets  compacted  lie. 

George  Herbert. 

Variety  alone  gives  joy. 

The  sweetest  meats  the  soonest  cloy. 

Matthew  Prior. 


156  FORGIFTS 

To  Minnie  with  a  hand-glass: 

A  picture-frame  for  you  to  fill, 
A  paltry  setting  for  your  face, 

A  thing  that  has  no  worth  until 

You  lend  it  something  of  your  grace. 

I  send  (unhappy  I  that  sing 

Laid  by   awhile  upon  the  shelf) 

Because  I  would  not  send  a  thing 
Less  charming  than  you  are  yourself. 

And  happier  than  I,  alas ! 

(Dumb  thing,  I  envy  its  delight) 
'Twill  wish  you  well,  the  looking-glass. 

And  look  you  in  the  face  to-night. 

R.  L.  Stevenson. 

From  inscription  on  an  old  sampler  dated  1736 : 

When  this  you  see,  remember  me, 
And  keep  me  in  your  mind. 

To  you,  dear  friends,  in  many  lands, 

I  send  good  wishes  far, 
Like  little  birds  in  little  bands. 

To  greet  you  where  you  are. 

German. 

With  sweets: 

Like  likes  like. 

Unidentified, 


VARIOUS    AND    SUNDRY       157 

Lips,  however  rosy,  must  be  fed. 

Unidentified. 

A  wilderness  of  sweets. 

"  Paradise  Lost,"  v,  29/f,  Milton. 

Occasionally  rings  were  made  with  the   stones   ar- 
ranged acrostic-wise,  to  convey  some  sentiment: 

R  uby  L  apis  Lazuli 

E  merald  O  pal 

G  arnet  V  erde  Antique 

A  methyst  E  merald 

R  uby  M  alachite 

D  iamond  E  merald. 

An  inscription  used  on  rings  in  ancient  Greek  and 
Roman  times : 

I  bring  good  fortune  to  the  wearer. 

With  a  ribbon: 

A  very  riband  in  the  cap  of  youth. 

''Hamlet,"  iv,  7. 


WITH  BOOKS 

Yes,  do  send  me  a  book.  .  .  .  Not  a  bargain  book, 
bought  from  a  haberdasher,  but  a  beautiful  book,  a 
book  to  caress  —  peculiar,  distinctive,  individual :  a 
book  that  hath  first  caught  j'our  eye  and  then  pleased 
your  fancy,  written  by  an  author  with  a  tender 
whim,  all  right  out  of  his  heart.  We  will  read  it 
together  in  the  gloaming,  and  when  the  gathering 
dusk  doth  blur  the  page,  we'll  sit  with  hearts  too  fuU 
for  speech  and  think  it  over. 

Dorothy  Wordsworth  to  Coleridge. 

Foreword  to  Another  Book  of  Verses  for  Children: 

We  know  not  who  in  olden  time 
It  was  who  first  invented  rhyme, 
But  few  have  done  as  much  as  he 
To  brighten  things  for  you  and  me. 

E.  V.  Lucas. 

And  with  them  words  of  so  sweet  breath  composed 
As  made  the  things  more  rich, 

"  Hamlet,''  «/,  1. 

What  art  is  his  the  written  spells  to  find 
That  sway  from  mood  to  mood  the  willing  mind. 
"  The  Poet,"  William  Cullen  Bryant. 
158 


WITH    BOOKS  159 

Dear  lady,  tapping  at  your  door, 

Some  little  verses  stand, 
And  beg  on  this  auspicious  day 

To  come  and  kiss  your  hand. 

Their  syllables  all  counted  right, 

Their  rimes  each  in  its  place. 
Like  birthday  children,  at  the  door 

They  wait  to  see  your  face. 

Rise,  lady,  rise,  and  let  them  in; 

Fresh  from  the  fairy  shore, 
They  bring  you  things  you  wish  to  have, 

Each  in  its  pinafore. 

For  they  have  been  to  Wishing-Land 

This  morning  in  the  dew. 
And  all  your  dearest  wishes  bring  — 

All  granted  —  home  to  you. 

What  these  may  be,  they  would  not  tell. 
And  could  not  if  they  would; 

They  take  the  packets  sealed  to  you 
As  trusty  servants  should. 

But  there  was  one  that  looked  like  love, 

And  one  that  smelt  like  health, 
And  one  that  had  a  jingling  sound  — 

I  fancy  it  might  be  wealth. 


160  FORGIFTS 

Ah  well,  thej  are  but  wishes  still ; 

But,  lady  dear,  for  you 
I  know  that  all  you  wish  is  kind, 

I  pray  it  all  come  true. 
"  Wishinff-Land,"  Robert  Louis  Stevenson, 

Leaves,  lines,  and  rhymes  seek  her  to  please  alone, 
Whom  if  ye  please,  I  care  for  other  none. 

"  To  His  Book"  Spenser, 

Initial  poem  in  "Lyrics  from  a  Library": 

I  love  a  book,  if  there  but  run 
From  title-page  to  colophon 
Something  sincere  that  sings  or  glows, 
Whate'er  the  text  be,  rhyme  or  prose. 

Clinton  Scollard. 

An  old  farmer  to  the  lad  Robert  Collyer: 

"  I  notice  thou's  fond  o'  reading,  so  I  brought 
thee  summat  to  read." 

Come  up  here,  O  dusty  feet! 

Here  is  fairy  bread  to  eat. 
Here   in  my  retiring  room, 

Children  you  may  dine 
On  the  golden  smell  of  broom 

And  the  shade  of  pine ; 
And  when  you  have  eaten  well. 
Fairy  stories  hear  and  tell. 
"  Fairy  Bread"  Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 


WITH    BOOKS  161 

Old  presentation  verse: 

Take  it,  'tis  a  gift  of  love 
That  seeks  thy  good  lone: 

Keep  it  for  the  giver's  sake, 
And  read  it  for  thy  own. 

With  a  book  for  a  child: 

In  this  book 

If  you'll  look 

Famous  folk  perchance  you'll  meet; 

Elves  and  fays  with  dancing  feet, 

Goblins  too, 

True  as  true ; 

Really  very  curious  things, 

All  with  wide  and  gauzy  wings, 

Made  to  carry  you,  you  know. 

Just  where  you  most  wish  to  go. 

With  a  book  for  a  child: 

Summer  fading,  winter  comes  — 
Frosty  mornings,  tingling  thumbs, — 
Window  robins,  winter  rooks, 
And  the  picture  story-books. 

"  Picture  Books  in  Winter," 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 

For  a  book  of  verse : 

A  verse  may  find  him  who  a  sermon  flies. 

"  Th£  Church  Porch,"  George  Herbert. 


162  FORGIFTS 

And  beauty,  making  beautiful  old  rhymes. 

Sonnet  CVI,  Shakespeare. 

Can  one  desire  too  much  of  a  good  thing? 

"As  You  Like  It,"  iv,  1,  Shakespeare. 

Your  hearts'  desires  be  with  you. 

*'As  You  Like  It,"  i,  2. 

May  the  coming  hour  o'erflow  with  joy, 
And  pleasure  drown  the  brim. 

''AlVs  Well  that  Ends  Well,"  Hi,  4. 

The  bearing  of  this  observation  lays  in  the  appli- 
cation on  it. 

"  Domhey  and  Son,"  Charles  Dickens. 

Read  it,  sweet  maid!  though  it  be  done  but  slightly: 
Who  can  show  all  his  love  doth  love  but  lightly. 

"  To  Delia,"  Samuel  Daniel. 

With  an  old  book: 

I  do  not  think  altogether  the  worse  of  a  book 
for  having  survived  the  author  a  generation  or  two. 

William  Hazlitt. 


WITH  FLOWERS 

And  let  them  also  bring  with  them  in  hand 
Another  gay  garland, 
For  my  fair  love,  of  Hlies  and  of  roses, 
Bound  true-love-wise  with  a  blue  silk  ribband! 
"  Epithalamion,"  Spenser. 

Love,  let  me  cull  her  choicest  flowers, 
And  pity  me,  and  calm  her  eye. 

Make  soft  her  heart,  dissolve  her  lours. 
Then  will  I  praise  thy  deity. 

But  if  thou  do  not,  Love,  I'll  truly  serve  her 

In  spite  of  thee,  and  by  firm  faith  deserve  her. 
"  PhUlis,"  Thomas  Lodge. 

There's  not  a  bonnie  flower  that  springs 
By  fountain,  shaw,  or  green. 

There's  not  a  bonnie  bird  that  sings, 
But  minds  me  o'  my  Jean. 
"  Of  a'  the  Airts  .  .  ."  Robert  Bums. 

Go,  lovely  Rose, 
Tell  her  that  wastes  her  time  and  me 

That  now  she  knows, 
When  I  resemble  her  to  thee, 
How  sweet  and  fair  she  seems  to  be. 

"  The  Rose,"  Edmund  Waller, 

163 


164  FORGIFTS 

We  are  yours  i'  the  garden. 

"  Winter's  Tale,"  i,  2,  Shakespeare. 

Flowers  are  Love's  truest  language ;  they  betray, 
Like  the  divining  rods  of  Magi  old, 
Where  precious  wealth  lies  buried,  not  of  gold. 
But  love, —  strong  love,  that  never  can  decay. 
Sonnet:  Flowers  Love's  Truest  Language" 

Park  Benjamin. 

More  flowers  I  noted ;  yet  I  none  could  see 
But  sweet  or  colour  it  had  stolen  from  thee. 
Sonnet  CC XXX y  Shakespeare. 

These  are  certain  signs  to  know. 
Faithful  friend  from  flatt'ring  foe. 

"An  Ode,"  Richard  Bamfield. 

In  Eastern  lands  they  talk  in  flowers. 
And  they  tell  in  a  garland  their  loves  and  cares ; 
Each  blossom  that  blooms  in  their  garden  bowers. 
On  its  leaves  a  mystic  language  bears. 

James  Gates  Percival. 

There's  wit  in  every  flower,  if  you  can  gather  it. 

Shireley. 

Comparisons  are  odorous. 
"  Much  Ado  about  Nothing  "  Hi,  5, 
Shakespeare. 


WITH   FLOWERS  165 

A  sign  and  symbol  shall  it  be 

Of  humble  things,  which,  though  we  range 
From  farthest  East  to  farthest  West, 
Like  God  are  sure,  and  never  change. 
From  "  A  Happy  Meeting" 

John  White  Chadwick. 

.  .  .  not  words,  for  they 
But  half  can  tell  love's  feeling; 
Sweet  flowers  alone  can  say 
What  passion  fears  revealing: 
*'  The  Language  of  Flowers  "  Thomas  Moore. 

The  sweetest  garland  to  the  sweetest  maid. 

"  To  a  Lady  with  Flowers,"  Tick  ell. 

Hebe's  here,  May  is  here! 
The  air  is  fresh  and  sunny ; 
And  the  miser-bees  are  busy 
Hoarding  golden  honey! 

See  the  knots  of  buttercups, 
And  the  purple  pansies, — 
Thick  as  these,  within  my  brain, 
Grow  the  wildest  fancies ! 

Let  me  write  my  songs  to-day. 
Rhymes  with  dulcet  closes, — 
Four-line  epics  one  might  hide 
In  the  hearts  of  roses. 

"  May"  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich. 


166  FORGIFTS 

As  I  was  walking  up  the  street, 
The  steeple  bells  were  ringing; 

As  I  sat  down  at  Mary's  feet, 

The  sweet,  sweet  birds  were  singing. 

As  I  walked  far  into  the  world, 

I  met  a  little  fairy; 
She  plucked  this  flower,  and,  as  it's  sweet, 

I've  brought  it  home  for  Mary. 

"  Under  the  Window,' '  Kate  Greenaway. 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THANKS 

But  thanks,  and  thanks,  and  ever  thanks, 

"  Twelfth  Night"  Hi,  3,  Shakespeare. 

Blessing  o'  your  good  heart. 

2  Henry  IV,  it,  Shakespeare. 

A  jollie  goode  Booke 

Whereon  to  looke 

Is  better  to  me  than  Golde. 

Old  English  Song. 

Would  that  the  little  flowers  were  bom  to  live, 
Conscious  of  half  the  pleasure  which  they  give. 

Sonnet,  Wordsworth. 

Thanks,  Mary!  for  this  wild-wood   token 
Of  Freja's  footsteps  drawing  near; 

Almost,  as  in  the  rune  of  Asgard 
The  growing  of  the  grass  I  hear. 

It  is  as  if  the  pine-trees  called  me 
From  ceiled  room  and  silent  books. 

To  see  the  dance  of  woodland  shadows, 

And  hear  the  song  of  April  brooks. 

"  The  First  Flowers,"  Whittier. 
167 


168  FORGIFTS 

Yea ;  I  thank  your  pretty  sweet  wit  for  It. 
2  Henry  I,  it,  Shakespeare. 

Your  flowers,  like  fairy  folk,  are  here, 
They  gladden  me,  they  give  good  cheer. 
They  bring  a  gracious  presence  near; 
Accept,  kind  friend,  my  thanks  sincere. 

Yes,  ready  money  is  Aladdin's  lamp. 

"  Don  Juan,"  xii,  12,  Byron. 

Then  thanks  for  thy  present.     None  sweeter  or  better 
E'er  smoked  from  an  oven  or  circled  a  platter. 
Fairer  hands  never  wrought  at  a  pastry  more  fine. 
Brighter  eyes   never  watched  o'er  its  baking,   than 

thine ! 
And  the  prayer,  which  my  mouth  is  too  full  to  ex- 
press, 
Swells  my  heart  that  thy  shadow  may  never  be  less, 
That  the  days  of  thy  lot  may  be  lengthened  below. 
And  the  fame  of  thy  worth  like  a  pumpkin-vine  grow, 
And  thy  life  be  as  sweet,  and  its  last  sunset  sky 
Golden-tinted  and  fair  as  thy  own  Pumpkin  pie! 
"  The  Pumpkin,"  Whittier. 

Books  —  the  miracle  of  all  my  possessions,  more 
wonderful  than  the  wishing-cap  of  the  Arabian  tales, 
for  they  transport  me  instantly,  not  only  to  all 
places,  but  to  all  times. 

Dr.  Arnott,  1788-18^4. 


SUGGESTIONS    FOR    THANKS     169 

Good  books  are   a  very  great  mercy  to  the  world. 
Richard  Baxter,  1615-1691. 

Give  me  a  nook  and  a  book, 

And  let  the  proud  world  spin  round : 
Let  it  scramble  by  hook  or  by  crook 

For  wealth  or  a  name  with  a  sound. 
You  are  welcome  to  amble  your  ways 

Aspirers  to  place  or  to  glory; 
May  big  bells  jangle  your  praise, 

And  golden  pens  blazon  your  story ! 
For  me,  let  me  dwell  in  my  nook, 

Here,  by  the  curve  of  this  brook, 
That  croons  to  the  tune  of  my  book, 
Whose  melody  wafts  me  for  ever 
On  the  waves  of  an  unseen  river. 

William  Freeland. 

To  divert  myself  from  a  troublesome  Fancy,  'tis 
but  to  run  to  ray  Books ;  they  presently  fix  me  to 
them,  and  drive  the  other  out  of  my  Thoughts ;  they 
always  receive  me  with  the  same  kindness. 

Michel  de  Montaigne. 

Who,  having  a  grateful  heart,  can  forget  these 
things,  or  deny  the  Blessedness  of  Books? 

Robert  Chambers,  1802-1871. 

Next  to  a  friend's  discourse,  no  morsel  is  more 
delicious  than  a  ripe  book. 

A.  Bronson  Alcott. 


170  FORGIFTS 

May  blessings  be  upon  the  head  of  Cadmus,  the 
Phoenicians,  or  whoever  it  was  that  invented  books. 

Thomas  Carlyle. 

I  own  that  I  am  disposed  to  say  grace  upon  twenty 
other  occasions  in  the  course  of  the  day  besides  my 
dinner.  I  want  a  form  for  setting  out  upon  a  pleas- 
ant walk,  for  a  moonlight  ramble,  for  a  friendly 
meeting,  or  a  solved  problem.  Why  have  we  none 
for  books,  those  spiritual  repasts  —  a  grace  before 
Milton  —  a  grace  before  Shakespeare  —  a  devo- 
tional exercise  proper  to  be  said  before  reading  the 
Fairie  Queene? 

Charles  Lamb. 

It  is  ...  a  pure  and  unmixed  pleasure  to  have  a 
goodly  volume  lying  before  you,  and  to  know  that 
you  may  open  it  if  you  please. 

Thomas  Love  Peacock. 

In  House  Beautiful  Magazine^  February,  1904: 

Blest  be  he  who  gives  me  books  — 
Friends  of  winter's  inglenooks. 
Weaving  garlands  scent  with  May, 
When  without  the  skies  are  gray. 

Douglas  Mallock, 

And  as  for  me,  tho  that  I  konne  but  lyte, 
On  bokes  for  to  rede  I  me  delyte. 

Chaucer. 


ENDE-WORD 

The  Beauty  of  the  house  is  Order, 
The  Blessing  of  the  house  is  Contentment, 
The  Glory  of  the  house  is  Hospitality, 
The  Crown  of  the  house  is  Godliness. 

A  House  Blessing,  unidentified. 


THE   END 


171 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


16DeG'58Hj 

r^  •"'".'  - 

i-*^^  ii.   iZ^Cj 

I  AM  9  1  iq7Q 

HEC.  CIR.    DEC  2  7   1978 

MAR  1 3  1990 

.  ..     lb 

:\ 

V,V,\ilBVi'- 

U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


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